As Alabama made its way through the SEC Media Days circus on Wednesday afternoon, the topic of quarterback play came up early and often. Most people seem to have an opinion and everyone in attendance was interested to hear what Nick Saban would say about it.

Spoiler: he said nothing.

But Gary Danielson, analyst on the SEC on CBS broadcast, did have some insight to share with us. He's a former quarterback who has been around Alabama and the conference for years so he's got a great understanding of what it takes to be successful under center.

"Those of us that were lucky enough to watch practice or the coaches that were there everyday saw a talent that's rare and only comes around once in a while. And I think after a while, I thought Jalen felt Tua was a special talent and could play and should play. I think his teammates started to see, wow, how do we keep this guy on the bench."

Danielson believes that Hurts began feeling that pressure more and more as the season went along and it affected his play.

"I think he could feel the pressure of having a good quarterback behind him. He stopped taking a lot of chances. I thought the play-calling suffered. I think the coaches didn't want to entrust Jalen with certain throws."

Danielson wasn't surprised that the Crimson Tide eventually got to a breaking point and had to give the freshman meaningful snaps. That ended up happening on the biggest stage - the national championship game down 13-0 - and the rest is history.

Listen to everything Danielson said in the video below as he also talks about what makes Nick Saban so successful and why he thinks AJ McCarron will succeed in Buffalo.

 

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