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 and 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. No matter what happens. Every. Single. Day. When Tagovailoa retained the starting job in 2018, Hurts didn’t change then, either. Same routines. Same standards.
