Alabama’s true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts caught a lot of heat down the stretch when he struggled to close out the season. While some of that heat was warranted, fans shouldn’t be worried about his future as the leader of the Crimson Tide’s offense — at least, not yet.
Hurts During the Regular Season
Hurts’s performance during the regular season was impressive. He had been one of the main reasons that the Tide had managed to post a perfect record of 12-0, and there was a legitimate argument to be made that he deserved a chance to go to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. This is what his statistics had looked like following the regular season:
– 209/317 (65.9-percent)
– 2,454 yards passing (204.5 yards per game)
– 21 passing touchdowns (1.75 touchdowns per game)
– Nine interceptions (0.75 interceptions per game)
– 840 yards rushing (70.0 yards per game)
– 12 rushing touchdowns (1.0 touchdown per game)
Considering that Hurts was only a true freshman, it was very impressive that he had managed to become such a force in the Crimson Tide’s offense. His completion percentage might be the most impressive statistic during the regular season — 65.9-percent is a ridiculously high percentage for a young player such as Hurts. He was making plays both with his arm and with his legs.
Overall, the Tide’s offense looked as dynamic as anyone had seen it during the Saban-era. Having Hurts’s ability to make plays with his legs gave defenses major problems, and it was looking like the Tide would coast into their fifth national championship within the last eight seasons. That’s when things fell apart.
Hurts Following the Regular Season
Here are Hurts’s statistics for both the SEC championship and the college football playoffs:
– 31/65 (47.7-percent)
– 326 yards passing (108.7 yards per game)
– Two passing touchdowns (0.67 touchdowns per game)
– Zero interceptions
– 114 yards rushing (38.0 yards per game)
– One rushing touchdown (0.33 touchdowns per game)
Despite this stark difference in Hurts’s production, the Tide managed to roll both Florida (54-16) and Washington (24-7) in route to the national championship game in Tampa. That momentum didn’t last long.
Alabama’s offense only managed 16 first downs against Clemson in the national championship game. On top of that, they were a dreadful 2-for-15 on third-down conversions — converting on only 13.3-percent of them. Hurts struggled to get anything going through the air. He did finish with 131 yards passing and one touchdown in the game. If you take away the 68-yard touchdown pass to OJ Howard in the third quarter however, Hurts only managed to put up 63 yards with only a 40-percent completion percentage.
There is no denying that it was a rough stretch for Hurts, but the blame doesn’t fall on solely Hurts’s shoulders. Play-calling was an issue closing out the season, receivers struggled with dropping passes and Cam Robinson committed what seemed like 50 false-start penalties. There are some things that Hurts needs to work on, however.
Where Hurts Needs to Improve
There are two areas where Jalen Hurts really struggled this season for the Crimson Tide’s offense. The first was when he was under pressure. Going into the national championship game against Clemson, Hurts had managed to put up polar opposite numbers when taking forced pressure into account.
According to Pro Football Focus, Hurts had a 113.7 quarterback rating — with 18 touchdowns to five interceptions — when defenses weren’t able to get pressure on him. On the other hand, he only managed to earn a 38.2 quarterback rating — with four touchdowns to four interceptions — when defenses managed to apply pressure. Most quarterbacks are going to struggle more when pressure is applied by the defense, but this high variance comes with a reasonable amount of concern.
The other concern is Hurts ability to push the ball downfield. Here he is making an unnecessary throw versus Mississippi State. He wasn’t directly under pressure, but there was a miscommunication between him and ArDarius Stewart that led to a costly interception.
CFB Film Room had an interesting statistic on Hurts before the national championship game. He was only completing 23.7-percent of his passes when pressure was applied by the defense and the throw was more than five yards downfield. That’s an extremely poor reflection on Hurts’s ability as a downfield passer. That doesn’t tell the whole story, however.
Can He Improve in these Areas?
It’s been easy for critics to come up with negatives in regards to Hurts’s play down the stretch, but there have been some false narratives that have come into play.
The first false narrative is that Hurts simply cannot push the ball down the field. People have said that he doesn’t have the natural ability to do it, and that is completely false.
Here is an excellent example of Jalen Hurts delivering for exactly how the play was drawn up.
As you can see, he does a nice job selling the play-action, stands tall in the pocket and throws with anticipation. This is about as good as it gets for a quarterback.
Here is another example with Hurts completing a 51-yard pass to Calvin Ridley against Western Kentucky.
Yet again, the play-action was properly run. Hurts also does an excellent job of quickly resetting his feet before delivering the throw down the field. It wasn’t a “perfect” ball like the previous example against LSU, but he gave Ridley a chance to make a play — which he did. He also showed above-average arm strength on the throw.
The issue with Hurts is consistency. His field vision was extremely poor this past season, but that is to be expected with such a young quarterback. There were so many things — both pre-snap and post-snap — going through his head that limited his ability to let instincts and vision take over. Once he becomes more comfortable in the offense — and some things start to become second nature — we should see Hurts become a more developed passer.
Conclusion
Hurts is already a dynamic play-maker with his legs. He almost managed to post 1,000 yards rushing as a quarterback — with 13 rushing touchdowns on the year.
If his arm can catch up with his ability as a runner, the Alabama offense could be unstoppable. His weaknesses this past season are correctable if he can continue to develop and build chemistry within the offense. Now that he will be “the guy” heading into the offseason, the coaching staff can focus on improving Hurts as a passer which should make a major impact on his development.
The sky is still the limit for Hurts. He just has to believe in himself, and stay that cool, calm and collected presence that he showed time and time again this past season.
Clint Lamb is a columnist for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “follow” him on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
