It’s still the year of the quarterback in the Southeastern Conference.
Just not the quarterbacks most expected.
Missouri’s Drew Lock and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham were the preseason picks of both the media and coaches when it came to ranking the top quarterbacks in the league. Georgia’s Jake Fromm was pegged third behind Lock and Stidham and certainly hasn’t disappointed, but Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa has been the star of the SEC entering the sixth week of the season, while LSU newcomer Joe Burrow is a huge reason Ed Orgeron’s Tigers are undefeated along with Alabama and Georgia and ranked in the top five.
Tagovailoa and Burrow are the SEC’s only quarterbacks yet to throw an interception, and they have combined for 20 touchdowns, with Tagovailoa accounting for 14.
“This is just the expectation we have as a whole offense,” Tagovailoa said Tuesday during his first news conference since the season started. “This isn’t something that could just be done by myself. We have playmakers on our team, and I have the opportunity to throw to these guys, and not too many people do.
“When you have guys who are playmakers, it makes your job a whole lot easier.”
Tagovailoa was privately named the starter over Jalen Hurts two days before the Crimson Tide opened with a 51-14 drubbing of Louisville. The hero of January’s national championship game has responded as a sophomore, completing 66 of 88 passes (75 percent) for 1,161 yards to rank No. 1 nationally in efficiency (238.3), and he also has rushed 20 times for 115 yards and two scores.
The only negative statistic accompanying Tagovailoa so far this season, sarcastically speaking, is that he’s 0-for-5 when it comes to playing in a fourth quarter.
“We had a lot of confidence in both of our guys here, and we have a lot of confidence in Tua,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in Monday’s news conference. “He has played extremely well in every game. He’s right on target most of the time, not only in where he delivers it but who he delivers it to and why he should do it that way. I think the coaches have done a really good job of helping him understand exactly what the expectation is, and I think he would be the first to tell you that the protection has been pretty good for him and that the receivers have done a good job of getting open.
“I expect every player to play that way, but he’s probably exceeded that to some degree in terms of his consistency.”
Alabama is averaging 54.2 points per game through its 5-0 start and has 12 scoring drives in under a minute. The top-ranked Tide’s 37 touchdowns so far are more than any SEC team ever to this point – topping the 35 that Florida’s “Fun & Gun” offenses compiled in 1996 and 1997 – and their 358.2-yard average in the first half is more than 47 Bowl Subdivision teams average for the full 60 minutes.
Tagovailoa is on pace to set the SEC’s single-season accuracy rate, which former Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch set at 72.3 percent in 1998, and Fromm is on pace to surpass that as well. Fromm has completed 66 of 91 passes (72.5 percent) for 924 yards with nine touchdowns and two interceptions for the No. 2 Bulldogs, and his efficiency rating of 186.1 ranks sixth nationally.
Burrow isn’t in the same neighborhood with Tagovailoa and Fromm in efficiency, but he has vastly upgraded a position that has lagged recently in Baton Rouge. The graduate transfer from Ohio State has completed 70 of 131 passes (53.4 percent) for 1,023 yards and six scores, and he is coming off Saturday night’s 45-16 shellacking of Ole Miss in which he threw for 292 yards and rushed for 96.
“Joe is making progress every week,” Orgeron said Monday in his news conference. “The passing game you saw against Ole Miss is the one I expected all year. We finally are doing the right plays to get the receivers open, and I think that’s the biggest improvement we’re making.”
Lock and Stidham haven’t been disastrous by any means, but they haven’t been elite, either. In his biggest stage of the season, Mizzou’s 43-29 loss to Georgia on Sept. 22, Lock completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes for just 221 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.
Auburn is 4-1 and ranked No. 8, but the Tigers have struggled behind a rebuilding offensive line, and Stidham has thrown for just five touchdowns.
“We have to do a better job of not putting ourselves in situations where we are having trouble with him having to run around,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said Tuesday.
Florida’s Feleipe Franks, who has 12 touchdown passes, Mississippi’s Jordan Ta’amu, Tennessee’s Jarrett Guarantano, Vanderbilt’s Kyle Shurmur and Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond are surpassing or at least equaling most of their preseason projections, while it’s been a disappointing start so far for South Carolina’s Jake Bentley and Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald. Kentucky’s Terry Wilson has done his share to complement standout running back Benny Snell for the 5-0 and No. 13 Wildcats.
Arkansas is the lone league team to experience a complete calamity at quarterback to this point.
Tagovailoa has been the headlining talent of this SEC show, and he has no plans of being derailed by talk of him being an All-American and the favorite for the Heisman Trophy.
“We have guys around here who are so level-headed,” Tagovailoa said. “None of that stuff matters. We’re just having fun with what we’re doing.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.