College football week 1: 5 bold predictions sure to come true

3. Jalen Hurts plays more than Tua Tagovailoa

There may not have been a bigger shock last season than what happened in the National Championship Game. When Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban came out of halftime trailing the Georgia Bulldogs, he made the move that no one thought he’d make: he put Jalen Hurts on the bench and inserted then-true freshman Tua Tagovailoa. The rest is history as the newcomer lit a fire under his team and led them to a comeback overtime victory and another title to add to the trophy cases in Tuscaloosa.

But now entering the 2018 college football season, we’re seeing an incredibly interesting development. There have been discussions all season about who would be the Week 1 starter, and Saban hasn’t done anything to provide any clarity, even naming Hurts and Tagovailoa co-starters for the opening matchup against the Louisville Cardinals.

Because of how Saban is behaving regarding this, the general assumption seems to be that it’s going to be Tagovailoa given what he showed in the title game. And when you look from a pure talent and upside perspective, that might actually be Alabama’s best option if they look to go back-to-back this season.

This is Nick Saban though. And if there’s one thing that we know that the head coach values, it’s limiting mistakes with consistency. The consistent option and the less mistake-prone option in this scenario is Hurts. Subsequently, I think when kickoff finally happens for the Crimson Tide, I believe that it’ll be Hurts that takes the majority of the snaps at quarterback in Week 1, even if we do see co-starters in action.