Jalen Hurts should not be asked to get Alabama back to the national title game on his arm alone. We are forgetting that he is a sophomore in college, and he is fresh off of a season where he did not expect to be starting. He is obviously very good, but he cannot solve all of Alabama's problems on his own. He has a lesser offensive coordinator this season, and he is on a team that has high expectations. That could be a pressure cooker for the young man.
He is still young
He has all of this season and all of next season before he can even consider going to the NFL, and he has a lot of growing to do before that happens.
He is a good player, but he was not perfect last season. He was, simply put, the lesser of all the lesser they had. He turned out to be very good, but he is not some worldbeater who snatched the job from two upperclassmen. He was just good enough to be put in. Alabama needs to be very careful considering how much Hurts was asked to do last year.
College football fans
If you want to have a wild time, listen to college football fans call radio shows. They are some of the most unreasonable people you can ever imagine. They do not think about the big picture, and they will blame a virtual child for ruining their season. I have heard people straight up blame Jalen Hurts for losing the national title game.
Considering he turned out to be good, I would think he would be thanked for being so much better than they anticipated. It seems as though he can handle the pressure, but it is not welcome pressure.
The new offense
There is no more Lane Kiffin. He is coaching over at FAU, and he cannot come back to fix the offense that was clearly broken in the National Title game.
The whole team has to adjust to that because the defense could be on the field more, and the offense will have some fairly bad moments as they work out the kinks. You cannot expect Hurts to adjust well, considering he has been adjusting the entire time he has been at Alabama. He was adjusting to being a backup. He was adjusting to being the starter.
He was adjusting to being a star. He was adjusting to defeat. Now, he is adjusting to a new offense. That is a lot of change for the guy, and he needs a minute to catch his breath.
We will see growth
He will grow, and he will be very good, but we need to put away the oil because we are not anointing Jalen Hurts the new savior of Alabama football. We expect him to be Kenny Stabler or Broadway Joe, and he just needs to be Jalen.
