College Football

Mac Jones: The New Face of CFB

Updated Jul. 14, 2021 4:11 p.m. ET

By Martin Rogers

Mac Jones is a lot of things right now, all of which have differing levels of importance depending on who you are and what you are interested in.

He is, most pertinently, the starting quarterback for the University of Alabama, a title that confers an instant gravitas in college football but one that appeared far from certain for him coming into this disrupted season.

He is also, as of this week, both the betting (+150, per FOXBet) and sentimental favorite for the Heisman Trophy, having supplanted the long-presumed victor, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, thanks to a combination of an excellent start to the campaign and Lawrence’s COVID-19 enforced hiatus.

For the stats nerds, he is the leader of a dizzying collection of statistical categories in the SEC and for those interested in the trivia of sports, he’s the son of a former tennis pro, appeared in commercials for Disney World and Universal Studios as a kid and speaks Chinese with a conversational level of fluency.

And yet for all the things that make Jones who he is, he is also doing a remarkably accurate job of imitating someone else.

Joe Burrow, last year’s Heisman winner, top pick in the NFL Draft and currently performing impressively for the Cincinnati Bengals, is exactly the kind of person you would want to copy if you were in Jones’ situation a year ago.

Six games in and the parallels are striking.

"Mac Jones is trying to follow in the footsteps of Burrow," FOX Sports’ college football analyst Joel Klatt said recently. "A veteran QB who had a kind of average career up to this point. He was a backup. Burrow had to transfer. Jones sticks it out, finally wins the job. Could we have back-to-back years where the unheralded veteran QB has a monster year to win the Heisman? It might happen."

Jones has always had to be patient. He was required to wait three years to start in high school at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, then came to Alabama in the same class as Tua Tagovailoa. After Tagovailoa got injured at the end of last season, Jones was solid near the tail of a campaign that saw Bama miss the College Football Playoff, yet there was no guarantee he would win the job this year.

Incoming freshman phenom Bryce Young arrived in Tuscaloosa with rave reviews and five stars, but Jones beat out both him and Paul Tyson, a QB steeped in Crimson Tide history as the great-grandson of the iconic Bear Bryant.

So far he is putting up 366 passing yards per game (just 12 behind Burrow’s 2019 average), has a completion percentage of 78.5 (to Burrow’s 76.3), and is averaging 12.4 yards per attempt (versus 10.8) and 16 touchdowns.

All that amid a grueling season that brings nothing but a steady slate of SEC action. After this bye week then it is LSU, Burrow’s former home, on the docket.

"We’ve never been through something like this where we play six games in a row, all in the SEC," Jones said in an interview with FOX Sports’ Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman winner. "Sometimes in past years, we would get a break. Not now. It’s a challenge that we’ve accepted. Preparation, everything has to be heightened because you can lose a game any week in this conference, so we have to bring our best and we’ve been doing that."

Alabama QBs, it seems, are always judged with an extra layer of scrutiny, due to the undeniable fact that they are typically surrounded with exceptional talent. Jones is no exception, with Devonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle (before his season-ending injury) among his receiving corps and Najee Harris as a potent running option, all behind a dominant offensive line and Steve Sarkisian, one of the most aggressive play-callers in the sport, in his ear.

Jones has also been able to draw on the experiences seen at Alabama by Jalen Hurts and Tagovailoa and use them productively.

"Jalen and Tua never let anything get under their skin and that’s something I really try to apply to my game," Jones said. "I often ask myself … ‘well, how would (they) handle this?’ I use them every day to just try and emulate what they do in that part of the game."

Having players like Tagovailoa (and now Lawrence), who make an early impact, become genuine national superstars while still taking classes and are touted for NFL stardom to such a point that teams want to tank for them, has to be good for the college game.

And yet, come-from-nowhere stories such as Burrow’s and now that of Jones, have a certain everyman, heartwarming feel to them, whether you are a fan of the program they represent or not.

"Mac Jones is your new Joe Burrow," Klatt added.

And maybe, a year or so from now, someone else’s Mac Jones.