Collegiate Sports

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Perfect circle: Jalen Hurts gains redemption on the same field he lost his job
Jay Busbee,Yahoo Sports•December 1, 2018

https://sports.yahoo.com/perfect-circle-jalen-hurts-gains-redemption-field-lost-job-032405561.html

ATLANTA—Tua Tagovailoa was curled up on the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, everything south of his knees in pain. Alabama was down 28-21 to Georgia with less than 12 minutes remaining in the SEC Championship. Nick Saban pulled his starter-turned-backup quarterback to him and spoke four words:

“This is your time.”

Hurts took the field even as Tagovailoa hobbled off, and in the huddle, fired up the Tide with a simple message: “Let’s go get it.”

What followed was the stuff of college football legend. Hurts spread the ball around Alabama’s array of brilliant receivers and marched Alabama into the end zone in a brutal, relentless drive that ground up six minutes and much of Georgia’s soul. Four minutes later, after a phenomenally ill-advised Bulldog fake punt, Hurts raced 15 yards into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown. It was Alabama’s first lead of the game, it came with 64 seconds left on the clock, and it was the purest form of redemption possible for Hurts, who’d lost his starting job in this same stadium, against this same team, 11 months before.

Of course, let’s be honest here. If this had been any team other than Alabama, we’d be celebrating Hurts’ backfield resurrection as one of the great stories of the season. As it is, though, we’re talking about the inexorable, crushing avalanche that is Alabama, and that means this all kind of feels like, say, celebrating Bill Gates winning the lottery. Alabama loses one Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback and swaps in another without a down’s hesitation? Come on.

But let’s take the whole looming Alabama dynasty out of this. Let’s boil this down to what it was, a player getting that rarest of opportunities: a chance to redeem himself on the very same field he’d embarrassed himself before. That’s good stuff, right there.


Jalen Hurts (2) checks in as Tua Tagovailoa (13) is led off. (Getty)
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Roll the clock back 326 days to January 9, to another Alabama-Georgia matchup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, another night when Georgia had a two-touchdown lead over the Tide. Much like Saturday, Georgia had taken advantage of the miscues and misplays of an Alabama quarterback. And much like Saturday, that quarterback’s replacement stepped up, brought the Tide back from behind, won the game, and celebrated in blasts of confetti.

That night, it was Hurts banished to the sideline — for poor play, not injury — and Tagovailoa basked in the joy of triumph. Hurts celebrated Alabama’s win, of course — he’d earned his ring just like the rest of the Tide — but it had to feel a bit hollow, knowing that his paltry 21 yards passing on three completions did little to help lead his team that last crucial mile.

Hurts entered Mercedes-Benz Stadium that night the starting quarterback of a dynasty. He left with an uncertain future, a dented reputation, and a replacement already sitting on his throne.

Alabama’s coaches apparently urged Hurts to remain silent in the offseason, but his father Averion didn’t heed the rule. Jalen, Averion said, “wants to play and he will play,” hinting that Hurts could be the “biggest free agent in college football history” if he decided to transfer.

As recently as Media Day in August, Saban said he had “no idea” if Hurts would even be on the Tide’s Opening Day roster, a statement that apparently surprised Hurts — even if it was in keeping with the way the Tide had kept him in the dark about his role ever since that night in Atlanta.

“For me, no one came up to me the whole spring, coaches included,” Hurts said in August. “No one asked me how I felt. No one asked me what was on my mind. No one asked me how I felt about the things that were going on. No one asked me about [what] the future held, and that’s that.”

But Hurts stayed on the roster — not only that, several Tide players told Yahoo Sports he got equal reps with Tagovailoa with the Tide’s first team all season long. Saban started the 2018 season with the insane luxury of being a defending national champion with two elite quarterbacks on his roster, and he deployed them both throughout the year for exactly a situation like Saturday.

“I’ve probably never been more proud of a player than Jalen,” Saban said after the game. “It’s unprecedented to have a guy that won as many games as he won … and then all of a sudden he’s not the quarterback. How do you manage that? How do you handle that? You’ve got to have a tremendous amount of character and class to put team first, knowing your situation is not what it used to be.”

“All year I’ve been waiting on my opportunity,” Hurts told CBS right after the game, “and regardless of how it went, my opportunity came today. I worked really hard this week with my teammates, and we found a way to get it done today.”

“He’s always put the team first,” Saban said, which may or may not be entirely accurate behind the scenes but definitely showed through on the field. “He’s gone in the game whenever we’ve asked him to go in the game. We played him as much as we could so that, if this came up, he was going to be ready.” And, perhaps in rebuke to the idea that Hurts could bolt to another school, Saban added, “This is a great example of why guys don’t need to run off and just transfer every chance they get, or every time something doesn’t work out.”

There’s still the chance that Hurts could pull the trigger on a transfer, but it won’t happen until he’s had one more run at a national title. Even with Saturday’s heroics, he’ll likely go into the playoff as the backup once again; Tagovailoa’s ankle sprain ought to heal up before Alabama plays again.

But for the moment, he’s enjoying the spoils of being top dog again. Long after the game was done, as crews behind him blew confetti into piles, Hurts fist-bumped Tim Tebow on the SEC Now set. He pointed at nearby fans who held up WE LOVE JALEN signs and shouted “Thank you for your loyalty!”

As he left the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field, he jogged over to a solitary kid who’d been calling his name and handed up his wristbands. He waved to a few more fans, posed for a quick photo, and then ducked into the tunnel leading to the Alabama locker room. For one night, on this same field, Jalen Hurts had gotten back what he’d lost.
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