SEC's Established QBs Outshined by the New Kids in Opening Week
The SEC entered the 2016 campaign with only three returning full-time starting quarterbacks, with only one—Ole Miss' Chad Kelly—firmly established as a superstar.
Week 1 showed us there are more on the doorstep, just waiting to break through that glass ceiling. It also showed us coaching matters above all else, especially with veteran quarterbacks who displayed no signs of progress during the first week of the season.
Even Kelly had his ups and downs vs. Florida State, where he threw for 313 yards and four touchdowns, but also tossed three picks and fumbled once.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
After playing coy with his quarterback plans prior to the game versus USC, Alabama head coach Nick Saban settled on true freshman Jalen Hurts as his primary quarterback against the Trojans. The Texas native shined.
Hurts completed six of his 11 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 32 yards and two more scores in the 52-6 rout at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
"We had a special plan for him. And he practiced his plays all week long, and he was going to go in the third series of the game in my mind no matter what," Saban said, according to RollTide.com. "And that's what we did. Y'all never asked. I wouldn't have told you if you would have asked, but you didn't ask."
Over at Georgia, fellow true freshman Jacob Eason entered early in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and promptly completed eight of 12 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown and showed the ability to stretch the field deep consistently—including on a 51-yard pass to Isaiah McKenzie down the sideline that set up the go-ahead field goal.
While head coach Kirby Smart was noncommittal about his quarterback plans after the game, North Carolina had two safeties deep the majority of the time Eason was in but only lined up one-high when senior Greyson Lambert was under center.
Why were the youngsters so successful in Week 1?
Coaching, plain and simple.
Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin put Hurts in position to be successful, make simple reads and use his legs as a weapon, rather than as a fallback option when protection broke down.
"He adds a dimension with his athleticism and his ability to run that I think is very effective, and I think that that actually opened up the running game," Saban said. "You know, when they can crash the ends and they don't think the quarterback is going to pull the ball on his own reads. And, when you're spread out, that's one of the better plays that you have, you know, it really shrinks the inside runs."
The playbook that Kiffin drew up to accentuate Hurts' strengths was apparent, as B/R national video analyst Michael Felder noted on Twitter:
"Lane Kiffin and Sterlin Gilbert both did a great job having true frosh QBs ready to roll in week 1 & giving them stuff they could handle.
— Michael Felder (@InTheBleachers) September 5, 2016"
Smart and Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney gave Eason smart throws early, got him settled into a groove and then let him loose in the third and fourth quarters. In addition to the long pass to McKenzie, he also dropped dimes deep that drew two pass interference penalties on a drive that resulted in his lone touchdown pass.
Now compare that to the struggles of older quarterbacks like Tennessee's Joshua Dobbs and LSU's Brandon Harris—both of whom looked woefully unprepared to lead their teams when pressure fell on their shoulders.
Dobbs and head coach Butch Jones said all offseason the wide receivers were the critical pieces of the passing game becoming a threat, and would kick-start a downfield passing game that was more fiction than reality a year ago.
Evidently, that wasn't the problem, because Dobbs routinely sailed balls over the heads of wide-open receivers in Thursday's overtime win over Appalachian State. Granted, he didn't have much time. But a senior quarterback with a veteran roster should be better than that.
"We can play better, personally, as an offense and as a team," Dobbs said, according to a transcription in an email from Tennessee. "At the end of the day a win's a win, and we'll take it."
It's a win, sure. But it also looked like more of the same—which suggests Tennessee's coaches dropped the ball in helping the offense take the next step.
Harris' struggles in LSU's 16-14 loss to Wisconsin are the most concerning of them all, though. The junior went 12-of-21 for 131 yards, one touchdown and two picks against the Badgers, including an interception on LSU's final drive after the Tigers had some momentum late in the fourth quarter.
Harris' lackluster performance against a Badgers team that did a good job limiting the damage inflicted by running back Leonard Fournette is a clear indication that—instead of viewing his near-firing in November 2015 as a wake-up call—Miles dug his heels in and became even more stubborn than he was prior to that tumultuous month.
Coaching matters.
It matters above all else.
There's no denying that Dobbs and Harris are ultratalented but aren't being developed into the stars they were once touted to be coming out of high school. In Dobbs' case, the inability to stretch the field vertically that haunted him over the last three seasons seemed to persist in the opener when he averaged just 6.6 yards per attempt.
For Harris, it's all about comfort—or lack thereof.
When the game fell into his hands, it was abundantly clear he wasn't prepared to win a game with his arm. He takes the brunt of the criticism for that, but really that's on Miles' inability to develop quarterbacks and properly prepare them for situations that fall outside of Miles' ultraconservative offensive comfort zone.
Youth ruled in Week 1, due in large part to two young quarterbacks coached by staffs who adapt systems to their signal-callers.
Unfortunately, a couple of veterans don't have that luxury.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Odds provided by OddsShark.com.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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