ATLANTA – Alabama was always expected to return to the College Football Playoff, but a true freshman wasn’t supposed to lead the Crimson Tide there.
Around this time last year, Jalen Hurts was just pretending to be a college football star, playing the role of Deshaun Watson for the scout team after graduating high school early. Now, the 18-year-old Alabama quarterback is the most famous student in Tuscaloosa, routinely hiding his trademark dreadlocks under a hoodie whenever he walks across campus.
“Some people walk up to me and say, ‘You can’t hide,’ but I know the hoodie works sometimes, so I continue to pull it off as much as I can,” Hurts said entering Saturday’s Peach Bowl. “It’s my lifestyle now. I’m kind of getting used to it.”
Less than a week before Alabama opened the season, Nick Saban had two quarterbacks listed ahead of Hurts on the depth chart – Blake Barnett and Cooper Bateman – and on Hurts’ first snap of his collegiate career, he fumbled the ball away.
Saban had never started a true freshman at quarterback, but Hurts’ four total touchdowns off the bench in the season-opening blowout of USC showed the legendary coach an explosive offensive element he’d never had on any of his title teams, making the defending champions even more dangerous.
“We had to change a few things philosophically in terms of how we went about our offense this year because of what Jalen could do and what his experience level was, and I think he responded well and made a significant amount of progress in terms of how he improved,” Saban said. “We’re a little more diverse now than we were early on.”
As the first true freshman to start at quarterback for Alabama in 32 years, Hurts set a school single-season record in rushing yards at the position (841) and completed 65.3 percent of his passes, while totaling 34 touchdowns – two shy of setting another Alabama record. He was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and became the first true freshman quarterback to lead his team to an SEC title.
With two more wins, he’ll also become the second-ever true freshman quarterback to win the national championship, following Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985.
“I’ve never put limitations on my game,” Hurts said. “For the people on the outside looking in, I’m sure they didn’t think it was a possibility.”
Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin believes Hurts will be a future first-round pick, though that announcement can’t come until at least two more seasons have passed.
By then, Kiffin can’t even imagine how much the young quarterback will have developed, but for now, Hurts is still in his first season. He is still just a year removed from high school and still makes mistakes that will be erased with experience, still not sure how to always take advantage of all of the weapons that Saban has placed in front of him.
Hurts can’t do it all yet, but he can do more than just about everyone else.
“It’s extremely abnormal what he’s doing,” Kiffin said. “There are times he can’t tell you a protection to save his life, but it doesn’t matter. He can create. When it’s not there, the other team can’t tackle him.”