Quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Kelly Bryant are keys to the success of Alabama and Clemson. Hurts started for Alabama as a true freshman and Bryant is a junior in his first year as a starter after succeeding Deshaun Watson last year.
There are some physical similarities between the two: Hurts is 6-2/218 and Watson is 6-4/220. Their production has also been somewhat similar.
In particular, Bryant’s stats this year as a first-time starter line up with Hurts’ from last year. There are other similarities between the offenses (look at the production of their running backs) and both teams have strong defenses as well.
Here’s a look at the production for Hurts and Bryant. We’ve also added Hurts’ 2016 stats for comparison. Remember that Alabama’s offense changed from 2016 to 2017, which accounts for some of the differences in his numbers. Hurts’ 2016 stats were also over 15 games, while Alabama has only had 12 games so far this season:
| Category | Jalen Hurts 2017 | Jalen Hurts 2016 | Kelly Bryant |
| Completions-Attempts | 134-202 | 240-382 | 244-362 |
| Completion percentage | 60.8% | 62.8% | 66.4% |
| Passing yards | 1,940 | 2,780 | 2,678 |
| Yards per attempt | 8.7 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Yards per completion | 14.5 | 11.6 | 10.9 |
| TDs-INT | 15-1 | 23-9 | 13-6 |
| Rating | 155.6 | 139.1 | 138.1 |
| Rush attempts | 137 | 191 | 173 |
| Rush yards | 768 | 954 | 646 |
| Rushing average | 5.6 | 5.0 | 3.7 |
| Rushing TDs | 8 | 13 | 11 |
