Alabama team passer rating by year, OC, and starting QB(s)
2014 - Kiffin - Sims (SR) - 156
2015 - Kiffin - Coker (SR) - 144
2016 - Kiffin - Hurts (FR) - 143
2017 - Locksley - Hurts (SO) / Tagovailoa (FR) - 156
2018 - Locksley - Tagovailoa (SO) / Hurts (JR) - 197
2019 - Sarkisian - Tagovailoa (JR) / Jones (SO) - 200
2020 - Sarkisian - Jones (JR) - 191
2021 - O'Brien - Young (SO) - 167
2022 - O'Brien - Young (JR) - 150
First, damn that's one hell of a stretch of good QBs.
Outside Lincoln Riley, those team passer ratings in Locksley's last year and Sark's 2 years would have been the best ever 3 year stretch in FBS history. Probably, not sure how to look that up.
It's hard to call a Heisman year a drop-off, but based on passer ratings, Young's 2021 season was a step down. And judging by the dropoff from last year to this year, largely enabled by 2 first day draft picks at WR. Sark had similar (better?) talent at WR but his teams were a lot more efficient passing the ball.
Sark + non-freshman QB looks like a good combo. Ewers is painful to watch this year but looking forward to the combination of Sark and sophomore Ewers.