On this day in sports history
BY COLIN “BIG C” MACGUIRE
The Greenville Standard
Today I will cover the starting quarterbacks at Alabama from 2010-2019.
Greg McElroy, a senior from Dallas, Texas, started in 2009-2010. His record as starter was 24-3. In 2009, Alabama went 14-0 and were SEC and National Champions.
He was MVP for the SEC Championship Game with 239 yards and a touchdown. In his senior year at that time, he set the single season passing record of 2987 yards.
He was drafted by the New York Jets in 2011 and was the 208th pick at the 7th round. He played two years with Jets and one with Cincinnati.
He retired in 2013 and has been with the SEC Network since 2014.
AJ MCCARRON (2011-13) started on the 2011 and 2012 National Championship Teams.
He was the only QB to start on back to back BCS National Championship teams.
In 2011 he had 2,634 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. In the BCS Championship Game vs LSU he had 234 yards passing and was offensive player of the game.
In the 2012 Championship Game vs Notre Dame he passed for 264 yards and four touchdowns. He had 30 touchdowns on the season.
In the 2013 season, he won the Maxwell Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Award, First team All-America and came in second in the Heisman.
He threw for 3,063 yards which was a single season record at the time. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals and is now with the Houston Texans.
Blake Sims started as QB in 2014. He was from Gainesville, Ga. He signed as an athlete and played at running back for two years.
He switched to QB in 2012 and beat out Jake Coker. Sims threw for 445 yards against Florida. It was the second most in a game behind Scott Hunter’s 484 yards vs Auburn in 1969.
He set the single season passing record at the time with 3487 yards, 28 TDs, 10 interceptions, rushed 78 times for 350 yards and seven TDs.
He signed as free agent and tried several teams at RB and QB but did not make a team.
Jake Coker started in 2015 and was from Mobile. He played on the 2012 and 2013 Florida State Teams and was a member of the 2013 FSU National Championship Team.
He transferred to the University of Alabama in 2014. He was a backup that season. In 2015 he started every game but the Ole Miss game. He was 14-0 as starter. He came off bench to have a chance to win and won team over. He led the winning drive vs Tennessee to win 19-14.
He had a great game vs Clemson to win the National Championship 40-35. He signed as free agent with the Arizona Cardinals.
He was released by Cardinals and retired from football on Aug. 21, 2017. He is now in sales and just became a father several weeks ago.
Jalen Hurts started in 2016 and 2017. He was First Team All-SEC as Freshman QB and SEC Offensive Player of Year in 2016 and SEC Freshman of the Year (2016).
As a freshman, he threw for 2780 yards, 23 TDs, 9 interceptions, and had a 62.8% QB rating.
He rushed for 954 yards and 13 TDs. His total of 36 TDs broke Sims record of 35. He was the first player in Alabama history to throw for 300 or more yards and rush for 100 or more yards in the same game.
In the 2017 season he had 2081 yard yards, 17 passing TDs, and eight rushing. He was offensive MVP of the Sugar Bowl.
In the second half of the National Championship Game, Tua Tagovailoa came off the bench in 2018 SEC Championship Game. He led Alabama to 35-28 win.
In 2019, Hurts transferred to Oklahoma.
Tua started in 2018 and 2019. He enrolled in 2017 and was backup in 2017. He came off bench in SEC Championship Game to win 26-23 in OT versus Georgia.
He was named MV offensive player in the game. He finished 2nd in the Heisman. In the 2018 Orange Bowl vs Oklahoma he went 24-27 passing with 318 yards and four TDs.
He was named Offensive MVP. Alabama lost to Clemson in National Championship Game.
In 2019, he was having a great year and then was injured against Tennessee with a high ankle sprain.
He sat out Arkansas game and then later suffered a season ending hip injury. He had an operation in December and declared for the draft on Jan. 20, 2020.
Mac Jones started four games in 2019 against Arkansas, Western Carolina, Auburn and Michigan. He played well and shows a lot of promise going into 2020.
