ATLANTA -- Jalen Hurts had the best seat in the house as Alabama beat Florida 54-16 on Saturday to win the SEC championship and maintain its unbeaten record heading into Selection Day for the College Football Playoff.
The Crimson Tide's precocious freshman quarterback sat on the sideline, his helmet off, enjoying the show as his defense scored on a pick-six and the special-teams unit blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. Counting an Adam Griffith field goal, Alabama had minus-7 yards of total offense and 16 points in the first quarter.
It was the picture of inevitability, the culmination of a season in which Alabama ran roughshod over a mediocre SEC and went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in college football. Nick Saban didn't even need Hurts' best to secure the top seed in the playoff. Rather, it was a total team effort that took care of Florida with ease.
On the same day Alabama saw its monthlong streak of games without allowing a touchdown come to a close, it ended its drought of four games without a non-offensive touchdown. Minkah Fitzpatrick's pick-six and Joshua Jacobs' blocked punt return upped the team's non-offensive touchdown total to an FBS-best 13 this season as the Tide scored the most first-half points (33) and held the fourth-biggest first-half lead (17) in SEC championship game history.
When Hurts wasn't busy watching his defense and special teams dominate, he was able to turn and hand the ball off to a stable of talented running backs. Bo Scarbrough, Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs combined for 212 yards and three rushing touchdowns, supplementing a so-so passing game. Alabama ended up with 234 yards on the ground.
Florida tried to mount a challenge, scoring on its first possession while playing stingy defense, but it wasn't nearly enough to rattle the Tide's cage. The Gators would implode thanks to three Austin Appleby interceptions and a running game that finished with 0 yards on 30 carries.
It was as if Alabama's defense had set up shop in the Florida backfield, racking up nine tackles for loss while pressuring Appleby into a number of hurried throws. The former Purdue quarterback couldn't set his feet and it showed with his three interceptions in a 26-for-39 day.
Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, a front-runner for the Butkus Award and a long shot to make it to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, had 1.5 sacks. Middle linebacker Reuben Foster, who received medical attention in the first quarter, came back and led the team with 11 tackles and two sacks.
Hurts, who fumbled Alabama's first snap on offense, managed to rebound from an inauspicious start as well. The native of Channelview, Texas, wasn’t asked to do much, but managed to finish with 138 yards and one passing touchdown.
With roughly a month to go until the start of the playoffs, working to develop the passing game will surely be near the top of Saban's list of priorities.
It didn't matter on Saturday, though.
Florida and a dozen other teams tried to make Alabama pay, and couldn't. In the end, the road to the playoff was no sweat for Hurts and the Crimson Tide.