Alabama’s run to the national championship game with Jalen Hurts at quarterback this season is the most prominent recent example of a program thriving with a first-year signal caller under center. When Hurts arrived in Tuscaloosa out of Channelview (Texas) High as a mid-year enrollee last year, he entered a heated position battle featuring both more experienced (Cooper Bateman) and more highly touted (Blake Barnett) options. But by the end of the first quarter of the Crimson Tide’s season-opening 52–6 blowout of USC, Hurts had seized control of the starting job. A few months later, after being named the SEC’s offensive player of the year, he came one two-yard Hunter Renfrow touchdown reception away from becoming the first true freshman QB to lead a team to a national title since Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985.
Breaking down the top quarterback recruits in the class of 2017
