Playing in a national championship game is nothing new for Alabama sophomore quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Neither is playing to mixed reviews.
Hurts threw for two touchdowns Monday night in the 24-6 win over Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, earning offensive MVP honors. Yet the 6-foot-2, 218-pounder from Houston also lost a fumble and the offense finished with a tepid 261 total yards.
“I’m my biggest critic,” Hurts said. “I’ve said this plenty of times before: Nobody can be more critical of me than I can, and the biggest thing is just being able to learn from experiences and being able to fix them in the future. So, like every game, we try and learn from the mistakes and get better at them and not make them again.”
Hurts certainly had a better semifinal performance compared to last season’s Peach Bowl against Washington, when he completed seven of 14 passes for 57 yards and rushed 19 times for 50 yards in the Crimson Tide’s 24-7 win. His 107 total yards against the Huskies remains the lowest single-game performance of his career, and it preceded the 35-31 setback to Clemson in last January’s national championship game.
Against Clemson this week, Hurts completed 16 of 24 passes for 120 yards and rushed 11 times for 40 yards.
“I think Jalen did a good job of controlling the tempo of the game,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Clemson has got a really, really good defense. They put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. I think, all in all, he handled it pretty well.”
After opening with a three-and-out, the Crimson Tide took the rest of their first-half possessions into Clemson territory. Hurts had a 19-yard draw and a 10-yard slant pass to Henry Ruggs III on Alabama’s second possession, which resulted in a 24-yard Andy Pappanastos field goal, and he had a 15-yard pass to Bo Scarbrough and a 12-yard touchdown toss to Calvin Ridley to cap the third drive, which put the Tide up 10-0.
Hurts guided a 10-play, 39-yard drive in the second quarter that ended without points when a 38-yard Pappanastos attempt hit the upright.
Alabama’s first two possessions of the second half resulted in the Hurts fumble and a three-and-out, but Da’Ron Payne’s interception of Clemson’s Kelly Bryant ignited a 14-0 burst that turned a 10-6 game into a 24-6 runaway. Hurts capitalized on Payne’s pickoff by finding Ridley for 13 yards to set up his 1-yard touchdown pass to Payne.
“I think we did a good job offensively,” Hurts said. “Obviously there are some areas that we can improve. We can do a little better job of executing and just doing the little things right, but obviously we did enough to get the win.”
The Crimson Tide will head to Monday night’s national championship showdown against Georgia with a 12-1 record and with a 26-2 mark the past two seasons with Hurts at the helm. His lone setbacks have been against Clemson last January and against Auburn in November.
Hurts was the SEC’s offensive player of the year for the 2016 season, when he threw for 2,780 yards and rushed for 954, but he has improved his passing efficiency rating from 139.1 last season to 153.7 now. He had a solid touchdown-to-interception ratio last year of 23-to-9, but he’s been spectacular in that department this season with 17 aerial scores and one interception.
From a rushing standpoint, Hurts continues to be a factor with 808 yards, having improved his yards per rush from last season from 5.0 to 5.5.
“I think he’s a heck of an athlete,” Georgia junior inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “He can beat you on the ground, and he has a pretty solid arm as well to where he can give his receivers a chance to make a play on the ball in the air.”
Georgia’s defense is coming off a Rose Bowl performance in which the Bulldogs were torched for 360 first-half yards, including 202 passing yards by Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield. The Sooners built a 31-14 lead late in the first half, but the Bulldogs quickly bounced back by holding Oklahoma to 29 yards in the third quarter.
Monday night’s game is not likely to have near the offensive fireworks that the Rose Bowl provided with Georgia’s 54-48 win in double overtime, and Hurts is expecting a very difficult challenge from Bulldogs defenders.
“I can tell you that they’re fast,” he said. “They play really physical. They kind of try to have the same mindset that we have defensively, and they do it well. They’re really good, and we’re going to have to be ready.”
Tide tidbits
Starting right guard Lester Cotton again was not spotted during Thursday’s portion of practice open to the media, with J.C. Hassenauer taking first-team reps again in his absence. … The Crimson Tide held a two-hour indoor practice Thursday in full pads.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.