Going over some stats, the determination I made is that a dominant running back is actually more important to Alabama winning championships than great quarterback play. Past a certain point the quarterback seems to start to do too much, a dominant running back doesn't emerge, and the team as a whole isn't as good. So they key is more competent quarterback not being asked to do too much and a dominant running back. Arguably Hurts has been asked to do too much, but four out of 5 of the best seasons from Nick Saban Alabama quarterbacks didn't result in championships. However, the best seasons running backs have had under Nick Saban resulted in championships. The key arguably is to ask less of any quarterback and ask more of your best running back.
Look, Hurts is hanging on the ball when he's supposed to hand it off; he's hanging on to it when he's supposed to throw it; he's hanging on to it almost all of the time when it's supposed to be an RPO. When running plays are divided up six each to the three RBs and 18 to himself, with a sprinkling of passes, not many plays at all when the other team manages 12+ minutes more in TOP, you are not going to have a happy team. You seem to think the play-callers can just flip a switch and change all that. They can't. All plays go through the ball distributor. When the ball distributor ceases to distribute the ball and assumes that he can do it all, you have a situation, the one we're in, which cannot be cured by the staff simply with a simple command. Confidence, once lost, is difficult to restore. It may not come back this year...
I'm kind of curious how this ties into you saying Daboll was being held back by Saban weeks ago.
I'm willing to give him the benefit of a doubt. Last year he was not just more limited as a passer, he was thrust into a few terrible situations. He was having plays called that were not really plays against Washington, so all he could do was just wing it, and he did ok considering. Then against Clemson the play calling situation lead to the Clemson defense really having almost as good an idea about the play call as Alabama. So, more justification for bailing on plays. The problem is clearly some bad habits have become ingrained and he was never broken of them earlier in the season.
If you do that, how do you justify keeping the dual purpose QB who's not the best passer on the team in the starting role? In addition, I'm not at all sure that cutting down or cutting out the RPOs is all of the answer. Another goal has to be restoring confidence and harmony on the team. That takes action, not promises. IOW, the first step is Jalen's and the ball is literally in his court. The staff can't do it alone, no matter what you've assumed...
I don't think you can modify the play package to modify Jalen. I think you have to modify Jalen directly, which means he has to buy in...
But how do you go about teaching him better habits after throwing him out there as a true freshman and ingraining bad ones (one thing I mentioned prior to the start of last year as a concern)? I mean he has to be trained somehow, while I agree he has to buy in, it is like a dog that's used to being kicked. The first instinct is still to run when there's a sudden movement. That's where I think Hurts was failed, they let him get away with the wrong behavior too long, and you're right in that he had to buy in, but it didn't need to go this far before it came to a head.
