Jalen Hurts cause for both concern, confidence for Sooners in Peach Bowl

Jalen Hurts has shown the ability to take over a game when he needs to, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some concerns about him in the Peach Bowl against LSU.

If you’re an Oklahoma fan, you may be of two minds about Sooners starting quarterback Jalen Hurts as the College Football Playoff Semifinal approaches. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will be a chance for Hurts to finish what he started in 2017 as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

It could also be another chance for him to be the reason his team needs to lean on someone else.

Make no mistake, Hurts isn’t the same player he was in the 2018 National Championship Game against Georgia when Nick Saban opted to pull him in the second half in favor of Tua Tagovailoa so as to secure a comeback win. He has matured, both as a person and a player. But the red flags are still there.

Hurts has had a remarkable season in his one-year stint as a Sooner. In some ways, he’s actually surpassed what his predecessors — Heisman winners Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray — were able to do. His 3,634 passing and 1,255 rushing yards are both career highs, and his 32/7 touchdown-to-interception ratio is also the best he’s ever had, not to mention 18 rushing touchdowns to round things out.

But with all his offensive explosiveness there is still an air of concern around Hurts. Always guarded with his words, the Heisman runner-up tries to do his talking out on the field, but at times the message being sent is the wrong one.

His stoic expressions rarely change, and his demeanor as a team leader is, in most cases, quiet and understated. All of that has been easy to deal with for teammates and fans, but it might not be what’s needed against a team like LSU in an environment such as a bowl game taking place in the heart of SEC country.

But there’s another issue surrounding Hurts that few are discussing, and it seems to have gotten worse as this season has progressed.

He’s putting the ball on the ground.

Hurts has eight fumbles this season, with six of them being recovered by the opposing team. Compared to his freshman campaign at Alabama where he fumbled 11 times, losing five of them, that doesn’t sound like such an awful statistic. But when you look deeper, there’s a concern to be had.

Oklahoma has only lost 10 fumbles all season. Five of those belong to Hurts and all of them came during the months of November and December, in the games that mattered most to the Sooners. While Oklahoma ultimately won those games, they may not be quite as fortunate if they hand the ball over to Joe Burrow and the Tigers.

In the regular-season game against Baylor, we saw both sides of Hurts. He fumbled three times, losing two of them, helping to dig the Sooners into a 28-3 deficit. It was also Hurts who miraculously pulled Oklahoma out of that hole to win the game and preserve their Big 12 title hopes.

Hurts also lost a fumble against TCU and then another against Baylor in the Big 12 Championship, both games which could have easily turned into losses for the Sooners.

It’s forgone conclusion that LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda knows about Hurts’ fumbling problems of late, and he’ll have his players making every effort to knock the ball out of his hands. How well they succeed at that and what Hurts reaction is should it happen will be a huge factor in the outcome of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Oklahoma fans know they have an offensive weapon who can win games for them in Hurts, but they also are aware that his psyche could be more fragile than some realize and that should his late-season fumbling continue in this game, it could mean then end of a magnificent season for both Hurts and the Sooners.

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