Love Hurts
By George Somerville
While the NFL world blows its collective mind at the thought of Jalen Hurts leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl, for college football fans – especially Alabama and Oklahoma followers – Hurts’ success comes as no surprise.
College football fans witnessed first hand the highs and lows that Jalen Hurts went through during his times in Tuscaloosa and Norman.
Hurts has proved his critics wring time and time again in his career to date. And guiding the Eagles to a Super Bowl is just another chapter in an intriguing football roller coaster.
Let’s look back at those times which have shaped Jalen Hurts into the NFL Super Bowl LVII bound quarterback that we now see before us.
It’s inside Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta on January 8th 2018 and Alabama are celebrating winning a 17th National Championship. The winning touchdown was scored in overtime with a play which keeps sports writers busy for weeks if not months to come.
Moments earlier Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had been sacked by the Georgia defense. Tua, who was still a freshman at the time had held on to the ball far too long and had lost a lot of yardage on this play. Nearly 20 yards to be precise. It left Alabama with a 2nd & 26 in the very final stages of overtime in this National Championship game. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was apoplectic with rage.
Few inside the Mercedes Benz gave Alabama the chance of getting even close to the first down marker let alone winning the match in the closing moments of overtime. Worse still the Crimson Tide were now out of field goal range. It was a disastrous play.
Yet in the very next play everything changed. Tagovailoa brilliantly found Devonta Smith with a 49 yard pass in the end zone to break Georgia Bulldog hearts and to win the game. It was as memorable a play to win a National Championship as had been seen in recent times. It also catapulted Tagovailoa onto the TV screen of every sports show in the US.
A Star is Born
Until that point Tua Tagovailoa was not a household name and had not started a game for Alabama. Jalen Hurts was the clear Crimson Tide QB1 and had started every game in the regular season – as well as the Sugar Bowl playoff game against Clemson, which got the Crimson Tide to Atlanta and in to the National Championship game.
Despite being ranked #3 and #4 in the country, both Georgia and Alabama won out their respective play off games and faced each other for a National Championship.
It was a match up for the ages. Alabama had an explosive offense and Georgia had a mean defense.
While many predicted a Crimson Tide win on the basis that Georgia could not stop Hurts and Co, the reality was somewhat different.
From the outset the Georgia defense brought the Alabama defense to a grinding halt. Bear in mind that this was an Alabama offense that featured Hurts, Devonta Smith, Calvin Ridley, Bo Scarborough, Jerry Jeudy, Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris. It was an offensive machine.
However despite the offensive talent on show an exceptional Georgia defense restricted Jalen Hurts to a meagre 28 yards in the first half of the Championship game. At the half Alabama had not scored a single point and panic had set in amongst the Crimson Tide faithful. Georgia led Alabama 13-0.
In a season in which Jalen Hurts had led his team onto the brink of a National Championship title, the Georgia Bulldogs had made Hurts almost completely ineffective.
Saban intervenes
However, there is a reason that Nick Saban is widely considered the greatest college football head coach of all time. Saban never shies away from the tough decisions. And benching your #1 QB at half time in the most important game of your team’s season certainly ranks up there in terms of bold calls. Which is what Saban did. Hurts did not return for the 2nd half.
This game is as widely remembered for the start of the Tua Tagovailoa era in Tuscaloosa as it was the end of Hurts carer.
Except it wasn’t quite the end of Jalen Hurts, even though truth be told that it would have ended many college quarterbacks careers. But Hurts is not your average college quarterback. We were starting to see Hurts’ true character shine through.
The first signs of Hurts character were evident in the immediate aftermath of the game in which he was very publicly benched. Speaking to ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi in the aftermath of the game, Hurst was asked about his benching,
“Gotta win the game,”
Said Hurts,
“One way or another. I’m always going to be a team guy. Coach — he made the decision that he made, and we were national champions. I’ll be able to say that for the rest of my life.”
Toughing it out in T-Town
Hurts’ benching did not end his Alabama career. Which is where we start to get an insight into his personality and why he has been a success in the NFL.
In an era where players patience to wait for anything can be short, NIL has been a game changer in terms of players willingness to wait for an opportunity – Hurts stands out as different.
Knowing that Tagovailoa had become the darling of the fans, Hurts was immediately aware that staying in Tuscaloosa would relegate him to the understudy role.
And this is exactly what happened; unbelievably to many, Hurts lost his place on the team despite having a 26-2 record.
“I was going through a really tough time in college, going through things that no one else was going through,”
Hurts told the media during the lead up to the Super Bowl.
“I knew I was going through it for a reason. That’s what I doubled down on. I believe faith without work is dead. So, while you have faith, you can’t not be doing anything”.
“I had a lot of faith and I put a lot of work in, I never stopped believing in myself and what I could be. I had limitless possibilities.”
While football is littered with players who have had to overcome adversity few have shown the courage and the humility that Hurts did in that moment.
Hurts stayed in Tuscaloosa and played the back up role to Tagovailoa.
However, in an extreme twist of fate, Hurts would takeover from Tua in the SEC Championship game in the following season after an injury to Tua ended his participation in the game. Hurts got his redemption leading Alabama to a 35-28 win over Georgia to take Alabama to a successive National Championship game with Clemson.
Mike Locksley, who was the Offensive co-ordinator at Alabama during this period, remembers Hurts on the way to the SEC Championship game.
On the journey Hurts talked about the potential for a role reversal to happen. Locksley recalls Hurts’s answer:
“I’ll be ready.”
When Hurts came off the bench, he completed seven of nine passes for 82 yards and a touchdown to lead the Alabama comeback for the win.
“It was almost like he was a fortune teller,” says Locksley. “He called it.”
Moving on to the Sooners
At the end of the 2018 season Hurts declared his intention to transfer out of Tuscaloosa. His selfless attitude endeared him to his Alabama teammates and the Crimson Tide fanbase, meaning Hurts left with everyone’s blessing. Hurts left Alabama a hero.
There was widespread speculation as to where Hurts would land next with his home state Texas Longhorns hotly tipped to win his signature. In the end Hurts had narrowed his final choices to Miami or Maryland. But it was the words of his old coach, Nick Saban who steered Hurts towards Oklahoma and specifically head coach Lincoln Riley.
Speaking to the 33rd team, Nick Saban said,
“I said, ‘You need to go to Oklahoma. They got the best coach to develop you as a quarterback, and you’re gonna be around the best players, so that’s gonna enhance your chances of having success.’”
Not for the first time Saban’s words were prophetic. Jalen Hurts had arguably the best season of his college career in a Sooners jersey.
Sooner Sensation
In his senior year at College Hurts completed 69.7% of his passes for 3,851 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions in his one season in Norman. Jalen Hurts secured second place in Heisman voting.
It is clear that Hurts won over his head coach at Oklahoma, Lincoln Riley. We know that Nick Saban was true when he said that Riley was the best coach to develop Hurts as an NFL quarterback. Speaking this week ahead of the Super Bowl, Riley had no nerves about Hurts playing in a Super Bowl. The USC head coach had this to say about his old QB,
“This will be the sixth year in a row that (Hurts) has had a new offensive coordinator… He had whoever he had (during) his senior year in high school, and then, he had four years of different offensive coordinators in college. He’s obviously going to have a new O.C. here with the Eagles, so what does this guy look like when he actually gets some continuity? I think that is intriguing, and you can’t discount the importance of that because it’s, in my opinion, impossible for a quarterback to develop to his full potential without having some continuity in a coaching staff and an offense and this guy has been able to produce at a high level despite that”.
Hurts made an immediate impact in Norman. He arrived as a winner and had instant credibility. Bill Bedenbaugh, then the co-offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, and now the Sooners’ offensive line coach recalled Hurts arriving in Norman,
“I’m sure he was a leader there, but he was the guy here.”
Built from a solid foundation
When Jalen Hurts arrived in Tuscaloosa he was ranked #192 in his class. He also arrived on the Campus of the nations premier football school as a 17 year old. However it became clear that the kid from Texas was determined. Hurts was the son of a Texas High school coach which meant that hard work was at the centre of everything he did.
“I think there’s a different journey you go through when you’re a coach’s kid – I think you act with the natural love for the game like I have – love this game.” Hurts told the media in the lead up to the Super Bowl.
Mike Locksley remembers Hurts arriving as a Freshman at Alabama. Hurts was the first player to report for Spring training and his work ethic caught Locksley’s eye.
The QB room in Tuscaloosa was pretty senior with Cooper Bateman and David Cornwell fighting it out over the QB1 spot. But a comment Hurts made to Locksley early on in the practice would tell us all we needed to know about the freshman QB. Talking to the Ringer, Locksley told the story of the encounter,
“I’m gonna make every one of them transfer,” Locksley remembers Hurts saying.
Which is exactly what happened. It took two games for Hurts to become QB1. While two of the QB’s hung around as back ups until the end of the season, they transferred quickly thereafter.
Philly Special
Like Alabama, Hurts has seen off the competition in Philadelphia. Prior to Hurts being taken in the 2nd round of the 2020 NFL Draft, Carson Wentz was QB1 in Philly. In Hurts first start for the Eagles he ran for 100 yards and threw for a TD – the first QB to do so in his debut. By the end of the season Wentz had requested a trade and Hurts was QB1.
Since then Jalen Hurts is 16-1 as a starter for the Eagles, which has brought him to Glendale, Arizona this weekend to play in Super Bowl LVII.
Hurts now has the opportunity to write himself into the history books. Bet against him at your peril. Hurts is a different breed.
