re: Negativity towards Tua

I'm already feeling sad for Mac when he has his first bad game.

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Yeah, it will be a thing. Our fan base is not generous.

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And suffer from select memory syndrome. They can go back and dissect every bad play by Tua but fail to remember a recent Auburn game with 2 pick-sixes. It's football, stuff happens.

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That's just it. Comparisons. I think because the Tua era after 2nd and 26 is a bit of a letdown. Maybe he set the bar so high in that one half of magical football that it could never be lived up to.

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I think there is the problem. Tua came in as a true freshman and rescued the team to help win the NC. After that the expectation was he would win another 2 or 3 while at UA.

But the reality as you mentioned was the bar was set to high from that 2 & 26 moment. Kirby was not prepared to see Tua or the other WRs trot out there in the 2nd half. Hell I doubt any of our fans were expecting Saban to do that. Many were hoping but knowing Saban's track record it was not expected.

Kirby can not even plan for 4 qtrs of a game, so it should not come as a surprise Tua did what he did in that half. When Colt McCoy went out Gilbert came in and looked like a Heisman candidate the rest of the game. Only to have the next year a big let down for Texas fans.

Tua from a pure skill set as a QB we may never see again at UA. In regards to comparisons between the two it probably needs to be prefaced by saying which variable you are using to measure greatest at UA. Is it based on pure ability or how successful the team is under their command? Which for Jones we do not know yet. On skill though IMO it would definitely be Tua.

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Gilbert was 15-40 for 186 yards, 2 TDs, and 4 INTs that night. His two touchdowns were a result of Arenas falling down while covering Shipley and a busted assignment where someone failed to cover Shipley. Those two plays accounted for 72 of his 186 yards. Take those two plays out of it and he's 13-38 for just 114 yards. Heisman candidate he was not.

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Let me clarify as my Heisman remark was more of an exaggeration, but the point was he caught us off guard and like Tua did not let mistakes deter him. He came in as a true freshman in that game.

First series I believe is when he threw the pick 6 right before the half ended. We were winning the game 24-6 at half with the pick 6. The 3rd quarter he drove them down the field to bring the game 24-21 going into the 4th. He put up 15 unanswered points. They had the ball still trailing by 3 with just over 3 minutes left in the game and I would wager most UA fans at that point were concerned about them coming back since all we could do so far in the 2nd half even with more Ints by him, which did not seem to rattle him, was to punt the ball. Yes we got lucky with the Anders sack and fumble recovery on the Texas 3yd line.

And the last 2 interceptions he threw were him basically trying to bring his team back in the last 2 minutes of the game when they were down at that point by 10.