San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Hurts’ road to the big game, as told by those who were along for the ride
Jalen Hurts, who grew up on Houston’s East Side and played at Channelview, will lead the Eagles in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz.
A look at how Hurts made it all the way to football’s big show through the memories of those who covered him along the way:
‘Does coach Hurts have another son?’
Every Monday afternoon, I’d do one last check to see that we had as many high school football results and stats as we could before running the area leaders for Tuesday’s paper. By Week 1 of 2014, one name kept popping up on every offensive list. Jalen Hurts, a junior at Channelview.
“Does coach Hurts have another son?” I thought.
I emailed him that day and he sent back a note saying yes, and he kindly encouraged me to get out and see a game. Channelview coach Averion Hurts had an older son, Averion Jr., who had just graduated, and I was used to seeing his name on the leaderboards. Talking with coach Hurts over the years was always a great experience. He was always kind and welcoming, and he ran a great program with players who worked hard and seemed to genuinely love playing the game — those were the teams that were always the most fun to cover.
Jalen’s name kept popping up as he racked up more yards — passing and rushing, always very balanced — and a ton of touchdowns.
The emails and twitter DMs started to pour in. Was Channelview padding stats? Who was this kid? Other high school coaches, college coaches and writers in other cities all wanted to know.
Before long, all the curious parties had watched tape, college coaches were starting to visit, and Jalen Hurts was a name mentioned in other places, not just on the local high school football leaderboard.
The first time I saw him play, like many, was against North Shore in October 2014. I was transitioning from being the high school and college sports editor into an NBA beat writer and wanted to see a few players before I made the switch. Jalen was at the top of my list. And like so many others at Galena Park ISD Stadium that night, I grinned as I watched another player I would add to my list of great players I saw way back when.
I was lucky enough to write about him and his family a few more times over the years — when he was at Alabama and then at Oklahoma. Now I’m seeing him prove everyone who thought he couldn’t be a quarterback in the NFL wrong — something I knew he’d do after seeing what he could manage all those years ago in high school football in the incredibly competitive Houston area.
Jenny Dial Creech
Can I get a Hail Mary?
Four years before North Shore won a state championship on a Hail Mary, the school lost on a last-second prayer — served up by Jalen Hurts. And just like the memorable 2018 play by North Shore that beat Duncanville at AT&T Stadium, it was a historic heave. Hurts’ outmanned Channelview team trailed the fivetime state champions 48-42 and was down to its final play when Hurts, a junior, scrambled for time before effortlessly flicking the football 50 yards through the air to the back of the end zone, where it caromed into the arms of teammate Bryant Valentine for an improbable 37yard game-winning touchdown.
That play gave Channelview its first — and still only — win over the powerhouse Mustangs. In fact, North Shore has outscored Channelview 256-14 in four meetings since Hurts graduated. But as big as the moment was, he didn’t do it for himself, or his proud father, Channelview coach Averion Hurts, or even his jubilant teammates or community. No, this one was for his older brother, Averion Hurts Jr. — who this long-time H-town observer humbly asserts was the better passer. Averion once threw for 560 yards in a 62-42 win over Friendswood in a performance that at the time ranked eighth in state history. Averion just didn’t have the same size and athleticism as his “little” brother, who stood tall for him on this day.
“It’s a personal win,” Jalen said in the afterglow. “My goal this year was to beat everybody my brother lost to his senior year, and we lost to (Beaumont) West Brook, but this is a big win for us.”
Leading the Eagles to victory Feb. 12 would be bigger, and Hurts already has proved he’s capable of delivering in historymaking occasions.
Can I get a Hail Mary?
Jason McDaniel
Still waiting on that offer from Texas
There’s always a recruiting story. And with top quarterbacks in the state, a lot seem to involve the University of Texas missing out on players who wanted to go to Austin.
So the story goes with Hurts. Then-Texas running backs coach Tommie Robinson was recruiting Hurts, and Jalen’s dad told Robinson he wanted to go to Texas but had an offer from Alabama. If the Longhorns didn’t make an offer in the next two weeks, they were going to the Crimson Tide.
Shawn Watson, the Texas quarterbacks coach/assistant head coach for offense under Charlie Strong, wasn’t sold on Hurts. Instead, Texas offered Shane Buechele, and Hurts committed to Alabama on June 5, 2015. Hurts enrolled early and ran the Alabama scout team, playing the role of Deshaun Watson, before the national title game of 2016.
Buechele played three seasons at Texas before transferring to SMU. He’ll be on the
sideline in Glendale, Ariz., on Super Bowl Sunday as a backup to Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs.
Shawn Watson? He’s the new head coach at Wofford.
Reid Laymance
When Nick Saban had to bench his starter
The six-month sample size suggested he should, but still, no one thought Nick Saban would do it. College football’s greatest coach isn’t much of a gambler. Rarely does he need to be. Saban’s teams are more talented than almost every opponent. His one Alabama team I covered had 15 total firstround picks, some of whom never saw the field in 2017.
One, in particular, needed to. Saban resisted. Before the season, Saban brought in Brian Daboll to run a pro-style offense and three future NFL receivers in one of his greatest recruiting classes ever. Only one problem: the quarterback couldn’t throw, tying Daboll’s hands and preventing the 2017 Crimson Tide offense from reaching its full potential.
So at the CFP title game on Jan. 8, 2018, I sat high atop Mercedes-Benz Stadium and watched what had become Alabama’s late-season calling card. Georgia knew the Tide had no downfield passing attack, so the Bulldogs stacked the box and stopped Alabama’s running game. The Tide got a few game-altering defensive plays to keep the halftime deficit at 13-0.
Jalen Hurts completed 3 of 8 first-half passes and totaled 21 yards. A month earlier, Hurts went 12 for 22 and mustered 112 yards in an Iron Bowl loss against Auburn. Hurts threw for fewer than 160 yards in six of Alabama’s 13 games preceding this one. Hurts’ mobility and moxie — and Alabama’s menacing defense — masked the deficiency. Alabama kept winning, but all wondered how
sustainable it was.
On the sport’s biggest stage, Georgia exposed the flaw, forcing Saban to act. He benched Hurts and turned to freshman Tua Tagovailoa in what may be the wisest decision in a career full of them. Daboll opened up the offense, allowing Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs and Calvin Ridley to shine. Tagovailoa hit DeVonta Smith for a walkoff, national championship-winning touchdown.
Hurts did not start another game at Alabama. He finished 26-2 as the Tide’s starting quarterback. Players with this track record don’t get benched. Few, if any, have the mental capacity to embrace it. Hurts had a reputation as a model teammate and a leader, a man who put team over self. Saban still talks of him with a reverence reserved for only a few of his many successful players.
“He wanted to graduate from Alabama,” Saban told Bill Cowher last week. “He wasn’t going to transfer until he graduated. I said, ‘You need to work on becoming a better passer. You can’t just make plays with your feet.’ ”
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to see this guy in a Super Bowl, only because I know firsthand what he went through to get there.”
Chandler Rome
That Hurts
The headline read: “Hurts so bad.” On Labor Day weekend in 2019, I could sympathize with the University of Houston football team.
Less than a month earlier, I underwent neck fusion surgery to resolve a decade’s worth of pain. Still unable to drive, I arrived in the press box at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for the season opener, thanks to chauffeur extraordinaire Sam Khan Jr., a former colleague then at ESPN.com, and a nephew I took on the trip to carry my bags (it’s
the closest I’ll ever come to A-list status, but, hey, doctor’s orders).
Just 70 seconds into the game — that’s how long it took the
No. 4 Sooners to score on the opening drive in an eventual 49-31 victory — it became abundantly clear I wouldn’t be the only person in Norman that day dealing with a pain in the neck. I had medicine.
UH had no remedy for Jalen Hurts.
For four quarters, Hurts, playing in his first game since he transferred from Alabama, zigzagged his way from end zone to end zone. Talk about whiplash.
In a historic debut, Hurts passed for three touchdowns, ran for three more, and finished with 508 total yards, the fifth most in school history. At one point I remember looking up at the video board and seeing an impressed Kyler Murray, the Sooners’ Heisman Trophywinning quarterback who was honored at the game.
Just how dominant was Hurts? He was 20 of 23 passing for 332 yards. He ran for 176 yards. On one play, Hurts avoided pressure from UH’s defense and off his back foot aired out a 45-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb. The nearest defender was somewhere along the Red River.
It was that type of game for the Cougars, who surrendered the most points in a season opener since 1993.
“We did some really good things out there, but there are a lot of things we can improve on,” Hurts said after the game.
Hurts went on to finish second that season in the Heisman voting.
My neck eventually healed. The same cannot be said for the Cougars, who went on to finish 4-8 and produce one of the worst defenses in program history.
“Hurts so bad.”
Joseph Duarte