TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Jalen Hurts doesn't show the slightest hint of frustration. His head is still held high. His voice never waivers. The same resolute, borderline stoic quarterback you saw leading Alabama to a 14-1 record as a true freshman last season is the same one you'll find off the field today.

He was this way in the moments after the national championship game in January. In a locker room full of understandably upset teammates, the 18-year-old from Texas took the 35-31 loss to Clemson in stride. He admitted the offense's execution could have been better, that he could have been better. "You never want to be on this end of it, but today we are," he told reporters that night. "My sophomore season starts tomorrow." And the next day, on Jan. 10, he and coach Nick Saban were on the phone discussing some of the things he needed to improve for next season.

Three months later, during spring practice, Hurts hasn't changed, even though the mood of the Alabama fan base surrounding him has. Despite earning the starting job as a freshman, despite winning 14 games in a row, despite winning SEC Offensive Player of the Year, and despite amassing more than 3,700 yards and scoring more than 30 touchdowns, he has somehow become the subject of intense speculation. Can he read defenses? Can he develop a deep ball? Can he do more than run? And if not, can he keep his starting job?

To the lukewarm fans of the SEC who checked out after the title game, this is not a joke. If you live in the state of Alabama and haven't heard the name Tua Tagovailoa, you're either living under a rock or don't have access to sports talk radio. Tagovailoa, a Class of 2017 recruit from Hawaii, is being discussed as an honest-to-goodness challenger to Hurts. Never mind that almost no one has seen Tagovailoa attempt a single pass (he's left-handed, by the way), and never mind that six months ago the popular question wasn't whether Hurts would win a Heisman Trophy during his career, but how many.

Jalen Hurts has adapted well to the spotlight that comes with being Alabama's quarterback. Vasha Hunt/AL.com via AP

To be fair, though, there are reasons for the hypercriticism of Hurts. His first 12 games (65.9 completion percentage, 204.5 passing yards per game, 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions) were nothing like his final three (47.4 completion percentage, 108.7 passing yards per game, two touchdowns and no interceptions). During the SEC championship game and both rounds of the College Football Playoff, he attempted half as many deep passes (20 or more yards through the air) and rushed for roughly half as many yards per game than he did during the regular season.

But remember what else was going on during that time. The conference championship was a blowout in which Alabama didn't need Hurts to throw the football, and the playoff might as well have been a different season given the monthlong layoff. What's more, there was the bumpy departure of Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator and the abrupt installment of Steve Sarkisian as OC. For a rookie learning on the fly, it shouldn't have been a surprise that he struggled under those circumstances against three of the most talented defenses he saw all season. But how he's responded to it is instructive.

Hurts appears to have learned from his freshman season and seems comfortable under the intense spotlight of being Alabama's starting quarterback. After the season, he spent his semester break at home working on his game with his brother, who was a quarterback for Texas Southern, and when asked what he thought of all the changes at coordinator and the hiring of former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, Hurts called it an "adventure."

"Like in my first interview," he said, "I'll say it again: It's the process."

Somewhere, Saban had to be smiling.

Hurts said that he and Daboll have jelled quickly and built a good relationship in a short period of time. Recently, Daboll put Hurts on the phone with Tom Brady, and there was even a FaceTime session with Rob Gronkowski. The sting of the loss to Clemson is still there, but Hurts said, "We're on to bigger and better things now."

During the first practice of the spring, Hurts said offensive analyst Alex Mortensen approached him and said, "The game looks slower to you now." It was true. Hurts said he was making checks and doing things they hadn't covered yet.

"It's just instinctive stuff I did," Hurts said, "and he noticed that. He said, 'It slowed down,' and I was like, 'I guess it did.'"

Teammates have noticed, too. Veteran offensive lineman Ross Pierschbacher said Hurts has "really stepped up as a leader," and during Saturday's scrimmage, safety Hootie Jones described how the defense "really got tore up" by Hurts and the other quarterbacks. According to Saban, Hurts completed better than 50 percent of his passes and threw four touchdowns.

Of course, that was nothing new to Hurts' go-to receiver, Calvin Ridley.

"He's just doing the same things," Ridley told reporters a week earlier. "He's balling. He's doing good; he's working on his pass game a lot and trying to get that right. ... So I see great things for him."

Will Hurts be the quarterback he was during the regular season? Or will he be closer to the version we saw during the conference title game and playoff? Maybe it will be a bit of both.

Time will tell, but one thing is certain: Despite the chatter, Hurts isn't going anywhere.

He's still the same resolute young quarterback who guided his team to a national championship game. He still has a bright future in front of him, but with a year's experience under his belt. And he's still the starter, until proven otherwise.

ESPN's Greg Ostendorf contributed to this report.