The last time Jalen Hurts played a football game despite a significant injury, he wasn’t supposed to play at all. This was December 2018, the SEC championship.
As the whole world watched, Hurts was benched at halftime of the national championship game the previous season against Georgia. Tua Tagovailoa replaced him and led the Crimson Tide to a national title. Hurts remained gracious, in public and in private, and that struck his coach as both typical of his quarterback unusual for anyone thrust into his position. Nick Saban himself notes that, on the night that he swapped quarterbacks—out of necessity, no disrespect intended—Hurts held a 26–2 record as the Crimson Tide’s starter.
Hurts didn’t complain. He didn’t do anything differently, really. He showed up in Alabama’s weight room the morning after his benching and, when he saw freshmen goofing off, he gathered them and told them they had a standard to live up to. When Tagovailoa retained the starting job in 2018, Hurts didn’t change then, either. Same routines. Same standards.
“The thing that impressed me most about [Hurts] is how he handled the situation when he got replaced,” Saban told over the phone this week. “That’s the kind of person he is, the impact he had on people around him, the dedication.” He was the same guy, . “I mean, that’s Jalen,” Saban says. “Just volumes and volumes of character.”
On that night in 2018, in the SEC championship game, against mighty Georgia, a script that would be rejected by even the most naive Hollywood agent unfolded like a movie. Hurts had come down with a high ankle sprain against Tennessee in October, and, since he was no longer starting, he had “tightrope” surgery to repair the ligaments—the school termed the procedure “minor” at the time. But he went into the conference title affair banged up. He could play, but he had little reason beyond Tagovailoa’s own high ankle sprain to believe the Crimson Tide might need him for more than spot duty.
They would. Georgia—the same opponent Hurts was benched against—opened a two-touchdown lead. Tagovailoa went out with an injury related to the sprain. Hurts jogged onto the field in less than full health. At that moment, everyone in the program thanked their deities that Hurts had not transferred elsewhere, as most players would have. He sparked a fourth-quarter comeback that vaulted the Crimson Tide into the College Football Playoff.
Alabama would advance to the national championship game. Tagovailoa would reclaim the starting gig. Hurts would go back to spot duty and the bench. Clemson would blow out the Crimson Tide. At that point, Hurts did transfer, but Saban notes he chose Oklahoma, in part, because he wanted to apprentice under quarterback whisperer Lincoln Riley to become a better, more fluid passer. “He chose to go to the most challenging place and had a very successful year,” Saban says. He sees both that game and the next season as more proof of Hurts’s integrity and character.
Suddenly, Saban remembers a commercial he had seen recently. He cannot remember the product, but the tagline is: “Be Comfortable in Your Skin.” Every time he sees those spots, Saban thinks about Hurts and how he embodies the slogan. He ranks among the most self-assured, self-reliant players that Saban has ever coached.
“He had to make himself into a guy who would never be satisfied, until he got to where he is ,” Saban says. “The biggest reason is he has great insight into who he is.”
