Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Alabama’s youth ensures a breeze over Kent St.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama didn’t miss a beat after tailback Damien Harris went down a couple of minutes into the game.
The youngsters made sure of it.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts completed the opening drive with a 20-yard touchdown run and fellow freshman Joshua Jacobs scored his first two career touchdowns in the topranked Crimson Tide’s 48-0 victory Saturday over Kent State.
The Tide (4-0) dominated Coach Nick Saban’s alma mater from the start while scoring on a kickoff return and even a short touchdown throw to linebacker/ short-yardage blocker Mack Wilson — yet another freshman. The only bad news for Alabama was Harris sprained his right ankle on the opening drive and didn’t return.
He was hardly needed, as No. 2 quarterback Blake Barnett played much of the way and the emerging Jacobs ran for 97 yards. It amounted to a Saturday afternoon respite for the Tide after a bruising 48-43 comeback victory over No. 23 Mississippi.
“The goal going into this game was to play a complete game, start fast, finish, and I think we probably did that as well as we’ve done all year,” Saban said.
Hurts was 16-of-24 passing for 164 yards and ran for 54 yards while splitting time with Barnett. He found Wilson for a 1-yard third-quarter score that was supposed to go to tight end O.J. Howard.
“It’s his first career [touchdown], so I can’t be mad about that,” Howard said. “I’m happy somebody caught it.”
Howard did catch a 34-yarder from Barnett, who first got into the game early in the second quarter.
Saban said Harris is “day to day” and his status is uncertain against Kentucky. The Kentucky native came into the game ranked fifth in the SEC with 327 yards rushing.
“It’s just tough to see a player who means so much to our offense go down,” Howard said.
Alabama did whatever it wanted in the first half, outgaining Kent State 352-53 and amassing a 41-0 lead. The Golden Flashes, who had trailed Penn State 16-13 at halftime in the opener, managed just 13 passing yards in the first three quarters before finally driving in the fourth.
Backup quarterback George Bollas was initially given a touchdown on a fourth-quarter run toward the goal line, but he was ruled down at the 1 after a review.