USC vs. Alabama: Score and Twitter Reaction

The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide started slowly but eventually pulled away from the No. 20 USC Trojans en route to a 52-6 victory Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

For the third straight year, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban is integrating a new starting quarterback into his offense. Making matters worse, his two best options have no experience at the college level. Blake Barnett is a redshirt freshman, while Jalen Hurts was a member of the 2016 recruiting class.

Barnett earned the start, but Hurts came on in relief.

As the SEC Network tweeted, Alabama came to life once Hurts stepped in under center:

NCAA Football added it was quite an improvement of fortunes over the course of a few hours for the true freshman:

Hurts finished 6-of-11 for 118 yards and two touchdowns and gained 32 yards with two more TDs on the ground.

Of course, USC head coach Clay Helton was relying on an inexperienced quarterback of his own. Max Browne joined the Trojans with a fair amount of hype as the No. 1-ranked pro-style quarterback in the 2013 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

With Cody Kessler gone, Browne has a chance to shine in Los Angeles. The early returns, however, aren't promising. The junior threw for 101 yards and an interception on 14-of-29 passing. Talented wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster caught just one pass for nine yards.

The Alabama defense blanketed USC's receivers and constantly harassed Browne in the pocket.

The Trojans gained just 92 yards in the first half.

The SEC Network's Peter Burns was impressed by Alabama's physicality:

The Crimson Tide were having offensive problems of their own, though, with neither Barnett nor Hurts providing a spark early on. But with his team trailing 3-0, Hurts found ArDarius Stewart for a 39-yard touchdown pass with 7:46 left until halftime.

The SEC Network shared a replay of the score:

"

This is Jalen Hurts.

You have been warned.@AlabamaFTBL 7-3. #RollTide pic.twitter.com/pCZFhkdsXb

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) September 4, 2016"

After Adam Griffith added to Alabama's lead with a 29-yard field goal, USC unraveled to end the first half. Senior defensive end Jabari Ruffin earned an ejection after stomping on Minkah Fitzpatrick's groin. Two plays later, Marlon Humphrey intercepted Browne's pass and returned it 18 yards for a touchdown.

Saturday Down South's Matt Hinton was ready to stick a fork in the Trojans at that point:

Any hopes of a USC comeback were dashed early in the third quarter. On the opening drive of the second half, Hurts and Stewart hooked up again, this time for a 71-yard touchdown that helped the Crimson Tide increase their lead to 24-3.

A mishandled snap by Trojans punter Chris Tilbey set up Alabama inside the red zone for the team's next drive, and Hurts scored four plays later on a seven-yard run.

Despite his team holding a 31-3 lead, Saban wasn't satisfied with anything less than 100 percent effort and execution, which Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde highlighted:

Saban took out most of his starters at the start of the fourth quarter, yet Alabama continued pouring it on. Considering USC fired him in 2013, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin likely took some pleasure from carving the Trojans defense open for 52 points and 465 total yards.

The Ringer's Bryan Curtis joked that neither USC nor the UCLA Bruins, who lost to the Texas A&M Aggies earlier Saturday, gave football fans in Los Angeles a reason to get prematurely optimistic about the 2016 season:

Of course, losing to Alabama in the opening week of the season isn't a damning result. USC will play the Utah State Aggies on Sept. 10 before facing off with the Stanford Cardinal a week later. Beating Stanford would help Trojans fans put Saturday's defeat out of their memories.

The team has a brutal schedule, though. USC will finish up the year with matchups against the Oregon Ducks, Washington Huskies, Bruins and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

For the skeptics who questioned whether Helton was equipped to take over as the head coach on a full-time basis, seeing the Trojans lose so handily wasn't a comforting sight.

On the other sideline, Saturday's win was business as usual, though the first half wasn't pretty. The defense was great, but Kiffin has some issues to iron out.

He and Saban will have the next week to continue tweaking the offense. The Crimson Tide will play the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers before they'll look to avenge last year's loss to the Ole Miss Rebels.

Postgame Reaction

"When the first quarter was over, I was saying to myself, 'Is this a good plan?'" Saban said regarding his team's quarterback play, per the Dallas Morning News' Mike Heika. "But I thought Jalen got more effective. I thought he settled in and did a nice job."

Saban declined to commit to either Hurts or Barnett as his starting quarterback in the Crimson Tide's second game.

"We played a very good team today and they played up to their potential," Helton said, per Cecil Hurt of TideSports.com. "The cold, hard truth is we didn't play up to ours. But credit [that] to coach Saban and Alabama."

"The score was very lopsided," Browne said, per Keely Eure of USCFootball.com. "But I think if you go back, you can see that the game was decided by a couple of plays."