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A lot of people discouraged Mac Jones from going to Alabama. After all, the Crimson Tide already had a quarterback named Jalen Hurts a year before them and another named Tua Tagovailoa in their 2017 recruiting class.
Why go to Tuscaloosa when you’re not even the best QB they bring?
Many people encouraged Mac Jones to leave Alabama. After all, halfway through his third season on the Jacksonville, Fla. Campus, the native had attempted a total of 33 passes. Oh, and Nick Saban had signed five-star rookie from California, Bryce Young, who many believed to be the day one starter for the 2020 season.
Why stay in Tuscaloosa when you will never be anything other than a backup / insurance policy?
However, that was never how Mac Jones had seen him. That’s not how a lot of Alabama players see it.
And that’s why you keep seeing Alabama doing it the way it did on Friday – maiming Notre Dame, 31-14, in the playoff semifinals to advance to their eighth domestic championship game. over the past 12 years.
Jones threw for 297 yards and four touchdowns on Friday. He’s now thrown 36 over the season, while completing over 77% of his passes. He’s a finalist in Heisman and an engineering match for a perfect national title season.
The above paragraph would have been breathtaking many years ago, when he was entrenched on the bench. Even Jones may not be willing to admit it all.
“I’m not very athletic,” Jones said after completing 25 of 30 assists against the Irish. “I’m just trying to get the ball to the right people.”
He was asked if he was preparing a speech for the Heisman ceremony.
“It’s all about rat poison,” Jones said, dismissing everything but the team’s goals.
Jones may not be the obvious poster for the machine Saban built in Alabama – certainly not before the parade of powerful running backs (like Najee Harris, who made his way 125 yards against the Irish. ) or wide receivers (such as like DeVonta Smith, who had three touchdowns) or an offensive lineman (like Alex Leatherwood, who continued to collapse parts of Notre Dame’s defense)… and we didn’t not even reached the defense.
Yet he is them and they are him, all part of what – in the age of transfer portals, opt-outs and instant gratification – makes Alabama so still at the top of the game.
Jones went there on a challenge and then dared to stay, in part because Saban was not only looking for the most talented players, but the most talented players who might be able to manage to be surrounded by equally talented players. , even more talented. . The Venn diagram on this is smaller than you might think.
It could be mega-rookies who are willing to wait and work for their turn, like Harris, a five-star who only had 55 runs as a rookie but is now nearly impossible to attack; or Smith, who entered the field in just six games as a rookie, but has now caught an SEC record with 20 touchdowns this season and is also ready for the Heisman; or Leatherwood, who once only saw clichés in the trash, but is now an Outland finalist and possible first-round pick.
Or it could be someone like Jones, who never knew if his glory season would ever come, but decided it was worth it anyway.
Early on, Jones’ dad found a way for Mac to define himself as he fought for practice reps, not to mention championship trophies. Mac was a “first string quarterback waiting for his turn.”
That’s it. So keep going.
Sure, he could’ve kept his commitment to Kentucky and probably started earlier in his career, and he sure could have transferred to a lot of schools and played right away, but Jones didn’t choose Alabama because that it would be easy.
He chose it because it would be difficult.
And he didn’t stay in Alabama because he was promised a starting job, but because he should earn it and keep earning it. The pressure for playing time never diminishes.
Hurts won the Tide a national championship to be benched in favor of Tagovailoa, who went on to win another. Jones ultimately replaced an injured Tua last season and could now join the other two to bring his own title back to campus.
Again and again it spins.
In a different time, when the number of scholarships could hover around 150 or more in the biggest programs, and therefore playing time was increasingly difficult to win, Bo Schembechler of Michigan tried to maintain motivation by declaring that “those who stay will be champions”.
The concept then was easier selling. It’s almost impossible now. The transfer market is relentless. And Schembechler was talking about Big Ten, not National Crowns, which are pretty much the only standard in Alabama these days.
Still, Saban managed to pull it off, an old-school concept seeking out old-school souls in this very avant-garde era of college football. Here, when everyone wants something now, patience is a prerequisite inside the Tide football building.
Jones kissed him and finally seized his moment. Just like Harris, Smith and Leatherwood and all the rest.
They are, in their own way, as obsessed with rivals as Saban, who against Notre Dame earned an unsportsmanlike conduct flag while gaining 24 points with just over three minutes to go in the game and earlier nearly broke a ESPN headset that didn’t work at halftime. interview.
He never stops.
Nor are the guys who play for him. Or those who still hope to play for him.
Mac Jones was one of those guys and now he’s a game of everything – quarterback to an undefeated National Champion while posting video game stats and turning NFL scouting heads.
Maybe no one saw it coming except him. But then again, if you spend your time caring about what other people think, you won’t last long in Alabama.
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