Offensively, Alabama football is an unstoppable machine.
Tua Tagovailoa did some incredible things in three seasons with the Crimson Tide, but Mac Jones is shocking doubters and has the group looking more explosive than ever.
With the guidance of Steve Sarkisian, Jones has Alabama averaging 51 points per matchup — which is No. 1 in college football. The Tide is also No. 2 for passing offense (385 ypg), No. 3 for total offense (560.3 ypg), No. 2 for pass efficiency offense (211.5 rating) and No. 2 for third down offense (64.5 percent conversion rate).
RELATED: WATCH: DeVonta Smith talks John Metchie, Mac Jones during press conference
Jones, a junior, leads the nation in passing efficiency (220.3), is second for completion percentage (79.5%), ranks second for yards per completion (16.7) and is fourth in passing yards per game (367).
After posting a career performance versus Texas A&M, he responded with a second consecutive strong outing against Ole Miss. Despite wet field conditions, he completed 28 of 32 passes (87.5%) for 417 yards with two touchdowns to no interceptions.
Jones guided Alabama to 63 points, 723 yards of offense, six third down conversions (seven tries), seven red zone scores (eight tries) and an average of 10.2 yards per play in a 63-48 win.
He only had four incompletions in the victory, as Jones had passes on target to wide receivers.
According to DeVonta Smith, the senior said his quarterback is simply ‘locked in.’
*DeVonta Smith talks Mac Jones at 2:07 mark
“Mac knows what he is doing when he’s out there,” Smith said on Tuesday. “He’s just making the right reads, seeing the right things and checking into the right things. It just shows that he’s in the playbook, he’s been studying film and he just knows where the ball has to be.”
Jones worked on two big things in the offseason with coaches in Florida: throwing with an established base consistently under pressure and understand more about how defenses would attack him.
He is mastering both aspects so far.
“He sees when the defense does something, and he tells us a route to run to adjust to it,” Smith said of Jones. “He is locked in. Just the things he is seeing on film, it has put us in position to make plays.”
Smith is obviously familiar with Georgia’s defense.
As a freshman, he caught the game-winning, 41-yard touchdown from Tagovailoa in the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game to deliver the Tide to a 26-23 victory.
RELATED: Alabama’s offense ‘makes you defend the entire field,’ according to Kirby Smart of Georgia
He knows the physicality the Bulldogs have, yet he looks at Jones in the same way he did for Tagovailoa.
Currently, Jones is one of the hottest quarterbacks in college football. He has completed 66 of 83 passes (79.5%) for 1,101 yards with eight touchdowns to one interception.
An opportunity presents itself this weekend to stamp his name firmly into the Heisman conversation. Jones is not only set to do it, but he also wants to expose the Bulldogs’ secondary in the process.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
