FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Making a guest appearance on Nick Saban’s weekly radio show Thursday, WJOX radio personality Jim Dunaway joked about callers clamoring for a formation with quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts both on the field. The Alabama head coach must have been taking notes.
During the first quarter of Alabama’s 65-31 victory over Arkansas, Saban opened a whole new can of worms for opposing defenses as Hurts took a handoff from Tagovailoa on an end around and ran it for five yards. The following play, Tagovailoa lined up at receiver with Hurts behind center as the wildcat quarterback. With Tagovailoa blocking on the outside, Hurts gashed the Arkansas defense on a 27-yard run.
“We had a few more things we were going to do out of it. We didn’t do it because of the way the game went,” Saban said of the formation following the game. “I think because of these two guys’ skill set, they can be something that can present some problems for defensive teams. That’s why we’re doing it.”
Fans weren’t the only ones caught off guard by seeing the two quarterbacks line up together. Hurts’ presence on the field sent Arkansas defenders scrambling as they quickly tried to account for him before the play.
“When they saw that, they started screaming Jalen’s name,” Alabama receiver Jerry Jeudy said. “They didn’t really know what to do. I thought it was going to be a good play because they had a lot of distraction on how to defend that.”
The call even surprised a few on the Alabama sideline. Defensive lineman Quinnen Williams claims he didn’t even know the play existed.
“I’ve never seen that play in practice,” Williams said with a smile. “I didn’t even see it in the game. I saw it on the Jumbotron, and I was like ‘Man, that’s amazing.’ You see quarterbacks transfer like that, but Jalen stayed loyal to the team, and they just put it together on offense.”
After losing the quarterback battle to Tagovailoa last month, many predicted Hurts would not play a part in Alabama’s offense this year. The junior, who is scheduled to graduate in December, could have taken advantage of the NCAA’s new redshirt rule and sat out the remainder of the season before transferring. However, Hurts decided to remain with the team and play out the remainder of the season as Tagovailoa’s backup.
“It’s exciting,” offensive lineman Jonah Williams said. “We have a lot of respect for both those guys as athletes and as playmakers. Our goal on offense is to let the playmakers make plays. So when you have both of them out on the field, I think there’s a lot of plays to be made.”
That’s a scary thought for opposing defenses. What’s even more frightening, by the sound of it Alabama has plenty more surprises in store.
“Yeah, we have a lot of more wrinkles we got to add to our offense,” Jeudy said. “We’ve got a lot more plays we need to execute, and we’re still trying to find our identity as an offense."
