I Hate You, John Crist: Jalen Hurts has been better than many fans realize
Now that the schedule is complete and Championship Weekend is also in the rearview mirror, we’ve got some time to kill before bowl season.
Despite the fact that it was considered a “down” year for the SEC, 12 of the 14 programs are going bowling. Even if Mississippi State didn’t qualify with its 5-7 record, the Bulldogs benefited from too many bowls and not enough teams.
The headliner, of course, is Alabama making a third straight trip to the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide are overwhelming favorites — including by two touchdowns or so over Washington in the Peach Bowl semifinal — to claim Nick Saban’s fifth national championship in eight years. The rest of the conference is forced to watch in awe.
We’re a few weeks away before toe meets leather again, but there’s never a shortage of topics in this league. The inevitable Lake Kiffin departure has dominated the conversation recently, but he remains at ‘Bama for the time being.
Here are some of my favorite comments from this past week. Some readers are convinced that I do my job under the influence of controlled substances.
Yes, Hurts was surrounded by the most loaded roster in college football, but I still think people are discounting just how good he’s been this year.
Remember, in the beginning stages of that USC game in the season opener, Blake Barnett was positively awful and completely overwhelmed by the moment. But once Hurts entered the huddle, the offense turned on a dime and put up points in droves.
Didn’t look all that good? Too many turnovers? Negative plays? I don’t know what Crimson Tide team you were watching, but it wasn’t the one I saw. He threw just 9 interceptions, which is less than Austin Allen or Joshua Dobbs (12 each) on about the same number of pass attempts. While Hurts did lose 5 fumbles, both Allen and Dobbs had 4.
That’s a total of 14 turnovers for Hurts in 13 games — basically 1 per contest from a true freshman with his kind of ability is acceptable. He was also only sacked 17 times, much less than Allen (28), Dobbs (25) and a host of other SEC quarterbacks.
Keep in mind that I don’t think Hurts deserves to win the Heisman Trophy. An invite to New York is far from crazy talk, though.
Count me among the people having a hard time with Ohio State getting into the College Football Playoff ahead of Penn State.
By now, everyone knows the story. Not only did the Buckeyes fail to make it to the Big Ten Championship Game, but they lost their head-to-head matchup with the Nittany Lions. PSU went on to win the conference title over a good Wisconsin club.
Credit: Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports
This is the best argument I’ve heard on the subject: Imagine the situation was exactly reversed, meaning Penn State was 11-1 and higher in the human polls, but 10-2 Ohio State won the head-to-head matchup and then emerged as Big Ten champions this past weekend. There isn’t a chance in hell the Nittany Lions would’ve been selected over the Buckeyes.
I’m with Clay Travis of FOX Sports — better brand recognition to help sell the CFP’s television show may have been a factor. Also, even if it’s been a few years, I guarantee the Jerry Sandusky situation would’ve been dug up again in the buildup to the Final Four. That might have made the committee squeamish.
What I don’t agree with, however, is that PSU may have had a better chance to beat Alabama than Ohio State or any of the other playoff participants for that matter.
If I were an Alabama fan, this would be the least of my concerns. A “down” year in the SEC is still plenty of competition.
Only one team has managed to stay within one score of the Crimson Tide this season, and that was Ole Miss. Nevertheless, the Rebels scored two garbage-time touchdowns late in the fourth quarter to make the final deceptively close.
Even if ‘Bama is the conference leader both in scoring offense and scoring defense — average score of a Tide game this season? 41-12 — that doesn’t mean they’re not prepared for Washington, Ohio State or Clemson in the College Football Playoff. Saban and Co. played a tough schedule in 2016. They’re just better by leaps and bounds.
Look at common opponents. Alabama beat USC 52-6, but Washington lost to the Trojans 26-13. The Crimson Tide beat Auburn 30-12. Clemson topped the Tigers, albeit in a much closer game, 19-13. While ‘Bama didn’t play anyone Ohio State did, the Buckeyes barely outlasted Michigan State 17-16. The Tide shut out a much better Spartans squad in last year’s national semifinal 38-0.
True, Alabama didn’t have to deal with very much adversity this season. Still, one way to overcome adversity is to never face it in the first place.
You do realize that Clemson and Louisville are not only in the same conference, but the same division, right?
Watson and Jackson played a near identical schedule in 2016. The Tigers’ non-conference opponents were Auburn, Troy, South Carolina State and South Carolina. The Cardinals’ were Charlotte, Marshall, Houston and Kentucky. At best, that’s a slight tip in Watson’s favor.
In the ACC, each played eight games: Five were common opponents (Boston College, Florida State, N.C. State, Syracuse and Wake Forest) and one was against each other. Clemson also faced Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh in league play. Louisville had Duke and Virginia. Again, that’s at most a slight nod in Watson’s direction.
Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
From a strength-of-schedule perspective, the Tigers are seventh in the country this year. The Cardinals aren’t that far behind at 18th. Remember when everyone though Tennessee’s march was murderous? The Volunteers are 26th, eight spots behind the Cards.
Jackson was the best player in America this year, plain and simple. The Heisman is his. And that’s no knock on Watson, who’s phenomenal.
I wrote a column this week suggesting that the Kiffin conversation could become a distraction. If there’s one thing Saban can’t stand, it’s distractions.
A mere 24 hours after we thought Kiffin was going to be the new head coach at Houston, word out of H-Town confirmed that the job will actually go to Major Applewhite. At this point, Kiffin’s future remains up in the air.
Even though Alabama ended up winning the national championship in the wake of Kirby Smart getting the head-coaching job at Georgia, don’t forget that the Crimson Tide gave up 40 points and 550 yards of total offense to Clemson and the aforementioned Watson in the CFP final. It’s fair to wonder if Smart’s focus on the task at hand was less than 100 percent.
Florida State alumni like myself still blame Mark Richt for losing the BCS title game to Oklahoma in 2000. Richt had already accepted the job — coincidence, I know — at Georgia. An explosive Seminoles offense led by Heisman winner Chris Weinke didn’t score a single point in a 13-2 defeat. For all we know, Richt had completely checked out.
At last night’s CFP press conference in Atlanta, half the questions directed at Saban were Kiffin-related. It’s already a distraction. How much of one remains to be seen.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
