re: I am in awe of Saban's courage

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We don't know where tua was at that point. He got a ton of first team reps in bowl practice and it's much easier to implement a change with extended practice rather than a single week in the regular season. Also Hurts best games were immediately leading to iron bowl so tougher call to make at that point

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It isn't just this, there are other factors to consider as well. In the one half he played, Tua made two significant mistakes that showed he was still limited in what he was ready to execute. First, he missed the play call and as a result threw a pass on a running play resulting in an interception. Second, he didn't have any idea what to do when then call was to center the ball for the last second field goal attempt. Saban had to call a timeout and put Hurts in to run that one play.

Things like that are a big reason why he wasn't already playing. That's not a knock against him. He's a true freshman coming in and trying to learn to be a QB at what is currently the best program in CFB. That's a massive step.

Hurts was in the same boat last year, and he made the same mistakes to the point that he started the year with a very limited playbook too. The difference was that last season Saban didn't have someone capable to lean on. The other QBs just weren't good enough to win so he had to ride it out and take his lumps with Hurts.

This season he had a guy that was good enough to win and let Tua grow in practice until he got to the point he was ready to execute at least part of the offense. During the month off for bowl prep, I'm sure they got him even more reps so that he'd be ready if needed.

Now by the time next fall arrives, Tua will be more than ready to take the wheel. He'll know the playbook inside out, with this performance his teammates will know what he can do in a pressure game, there won't any grumbling about supplanting Hurts, and Bama is making room for another national championship trophy.

IMO, Saban handled the situation beautifully.