Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hurt, Browning varying skill sets
ATLANTA — To truly understand Alabama’s fantastic season, you’ll need to go back to the beginning. All the way back to August and the practice fields in Tuscaloosa, where the Crimson Tide were preparing to start another title run.
The program was coming off another national championship season — its 16th — and once again Nick Saban and his staff were faced with a tough decision at quarterback.
Longtime Alabama broadcaster Eli Gold observed one of those practices and watched as a trio of players battled it out, including junior Cooper Bateman and redshirt freshman Blake Barnett. But it was the play of incoming freshman Jalen Hurts that caused Gold to pause and wonder: Would Saban consider starting a true freshman?
To fully understand the weight of the question, you must know tradition-rich Alabama has never started a freshman at quarterback. Yet there was something about Hurts that stood out.
“You just knew he was special,” Gold said Friday, the day before No. 1 Alabama’s (13-0, 8-0 SEC) showdown with No. 4 Washington (12-1, 8-1 Pac-12) in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Saturday at the Georgia Dome. The winner advances to the national title game in Tampa.
Barnett would eventually earn the first start of the season against USC at AT&T Stadium, but it didn’t take long before Hurts slid into the starting job permanently. From the start, the Channelview, Texas, native impressed with his speed and size.
He set single-season school record for rushing yards by a quarterback (841) and is second behind Blake Sims in total offense (3,433 yards) and touchdowns responsible for (34).
Washington’s task will be to try to rattle the young quarterback. In the final five games of the season, Hurts turned the ball over six times (four interceptions, two fumbles) and is susceptible to pressure.
While Hurts was an unexpected surprise for Alabama this season, many in the Washington program already knew Huskies quarterback Jake Browning was special.
As a true freshman, he started every game for the Huskies, leading them to a 7-6 record in 2015. He went on to re-write many of Washington’s football records, setting nine singleseason school marks, including touchdowns in a game (6); yards per attempt (9.26); touchdown passes per game (3.23); points responsible for (276) and 50 plus-yard passes (8).
He also set a record for touchdown passes in a season with 42, becoming the third quarterback in Pac-12 history to throw at least 40 touchdown passes in season. He joins Jared Goff (Cal, 2015) and Marcus Mariota (Oregon, 2014).
Browning lacks much of the bravado associated with the quarterback position, preferring to let his play on the field speak for itself.
One of the keys to Washington’s success will be protecting Browning and giving him time to find his talented receivers, including Dante Pettis and Ross. During the team’s only loss of the season to USC, Browning was sacked three times and struggled to get into a rhythm.
The Huskies’ ability to handle Alabama’s constant pressure Saturday will help determine the team’s success. But no matter how much pressure Browning faces, his teammates expect him to reamin calm.
“I think his decisionmaking is based off his personality,” Ross said. “If Jake gets in trouble, then it must be the end of the world.”