Whether Alabama football coach Nick Saban simplifies anything for new starting quarterback Mac Jones this week against Arkansas won’t be known until Saturday night.
Razorbacks coach Chad Morris provided a simple response Wednesday when asked what he expects from Jones inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“He’s played in six of their last seven games,” Morris said. “If you’re a quarterback at Alabama, then you’re definitely a really, really good football player. Mac is no different. We’ve got our work cut out for us, because he’s got a great supporting cast around him.
“We’ve got to do a really good job of taking great angles, and when they do get the ball in space, we’ve got to rally and get them down.”
Jones, a redshirt sophomore from Jacksonville, Florida, has completed 20 of 32 passes for 237 yards with a touchdown and an interception this season for the top-ranked Crimson Tide (7-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference). He ascended to the top spot last Saturday night when starter Tua Tagovailoa sprained his right ankle in the second quarter of a 35-13 win against Tennessee.
Tagovailoa underwent a surgical procedure Sunday, and Saban is hopeful of a speedy recovery that would allow the junior to return for the Nov. 9 showdown against No. 2 LSU, but Jones holds the reins this week against the struggling Razorbacks (2-5, 0-4).
“Mac has to be the leader of the team,” Saban said Wednesday. “His disposition has been really good, and he’s executed really well. Hopefully we’ll keep improving through the course of the week as we get more repetitions.
“I think everybody has to focus on finishing and doing their job. Mac has to do his job, and everybody else has to do their jobs.”
Taulia Tagovailoa, Tua’s younger brother, will be the second-string quarterback. Saban was asked after Wednesday’s practice if there would be an effort to get the freshman into Saturday’s game to “expedite his progression,” and that resulted in a rant.
Alabama is a 31.5-point favorite to win its 13th straight in the series.
“We’re focused on winning the game,” Saban said. “We’re going to play the best players so that we can win the game, and we’re not assuming that it’s going to be an easy game. We’re not assuming that we’re going to have an opportunity to just play everybody who wants to play to expedite anything.
“We’re going to play everybody who can expedite us winning this game.”
At least Alabama knows its starting quarterback this week. Morris has gone back and forth this season between graduate transfers Ben Hicks (SMU) and Nick Starkel (Texas A&M). Hicks played throughout last week’s 51-10 loss to visiting Auburn but is nursing a sore shoulder.
“I haven’t made that decision,” Morris said. “Ben has been out there in practice trying to work through some of the soreness that he has. He definitely made it through practice and did some good things.”
Hicks and Starkel have combined for nine touchdowns and eight interceptions. Redshirt freshman John Stephen Jones has been spotted working with the first team, but Morris said that’s been going on for the past two or three weeks.
Tide tidbits
Saban on honoring the 2009 BCS champions before Saturday’s kickoff: “That was a special team to me. It’s the only one that went undefeated, and the guys on that team came here when we weren’t any good. They came here when we were 6-6.” … Alabama lost out on the nation’s top tight end prospect Wednesday night when Arik Gilbert of Marietta, Georgia, committed to LSU over the Tide.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.