Can Mac Jones be to Alabama what Cardale Jones was to Ohio State?

Stop me if you’ve seen this Jones before. Can Mac Jones channel his inner 2014 Cardale Jones and lead the Alabama Crimson Tide to a national title run?

Last Saturday saw potentially the end of the Alabama Crimson Tide’s realistic shot of winning the College Football Playoff. With only one loss on their resume, Alabama lost its best player for the season, as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa dislocated his hip in a blowout win over the division rival Mississippi State Bulldogs. Mac Jones came in and helped guide Alabama to victory.

Jones has played a bit filling in for Tagovailoa this season. He played the entire second half of the Third Saturday in October vs. the Tennessee Volunteers and the whole game vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks, while Tagovailoa recovery from a high ankle sprain. But he has a chance to become a legend in Tuscaloosa this year. Like, how?

Five years ago during the inaugural College Football Playoff, another Jones by the name of Cardale Jones can in to save the day for the Ohio State Buckeyes. J.T. Barrett succumbed to injury and it was up to Jones to win three-straight games to win a national title.

The Buckeyes defeated the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Championship and then bested Alabama and the Oregon Ducks in succession in the College Football Playoff to become champions. Jones needed just three starts to become forever a Buckeyes legend. Could Alabama’s Jones do the same thing?

Alabama has two more regular-season games left: at home vs. the FCS Western Carolina Catamounts and on the road against the archrival Auburn Tigers. Jones and Alabama will cakewalk past Western Carolina, but beating the best three-loss team in the country on the road with a backup quarterback is tough sledding, even if Alabama is still a college football dynasty.

Should Alabama beat both Western Carolina and Auburn, the Crimson Tide will be 11-1 (7-1) with a pretty good shot at getting into Playoff as a one-loss, at-large team. With their only loss being to the undefeated LSU Tigers, Alabama needs the Bayou Bengals to lose twice for them to get to Atlanta to face the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game. So Alabama won’t be there.

If LSU defeats Georgia in Mercedes-Benz Stadium like many expect will happen, the Crimson Tide stand a good chance of being the fourth team into the top four, along with LSU, the Clemson Tigers and Ohio State, all presumably undefeated Power 5 champions.

If that’s the case, Alabama will either face LSU in a rematch in the Peach Bowl or probably Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. The team who lost the first time has a better shot of winning a potential rematch. Ohio State’s best win will be presumably against a two-loss Penn State Nittany Lions team if they do win the Big Ten. In short, Mac can become Cardale this holiday season potentially.

But how likely is that to happen? It’s a strong three-to-four-game parlay, depending on if you want to count the Western Carolina game. Beating Auburn at Auburn and then two of the three best teams in the land in either Clemson, LSU or Ohio State in succession seems almost impossible, but that’s what we said about Jones back in 2014 at Ohio State. It’s certainly in play.

Should Jones do what Jones did in 2014 in 2019, he will become the second greatest Jones from his high school after Baseball Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. That is amazing company. Overall, Alabama may very well make the Playoff, but won’t be favored to win the national semifinal, much less the national title with Jones in at quarterback over Tagovailoa.

The Crimson Tide can definitely reach the Playoff, but their dreams of winning yet another national title under head coach Nick Saban were dashed when Tagovailoa hit the turf in Starkville. But if Jones wants to keep up with the Joneses, he’ll need to channel his inner Cardale, his inner Chipper, his inner Julio and then some. It could happen, but Mac and Jerry aren’t hoisting trophies this year.

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