ESPN anchor Zubin Mehenti shared his opinions on why freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts became No. 1 Alabama’s starting quarterback with the 1st & 10 Club at the Mobile Marriott Monday.

“What I think has been a huge factor with Jalen Hurts since he arrived on campus is, just taking advantage of your opportunities,” Mehenti said. “When he got to campus Jan. 2 and he had the chance to imitate DeShaun Watson, not only did he do a good job of getting Alabama ready — although Watson played pretty well that game — what he did was, he put a bug in the coaches’ ear that ‘I’m here.’ Bateman has more experience, Barnett’s probably the highest recruited quarterback in the Saban era, but ‘I’m here.’

“Those other guys are Elite 11, high school all-star games … but ‘I’m here. I’m going to make a couple of bad throws, and some leads are going to get away from me and I’m probably going to make some errant throws, but I’m going to show you some flashes of brilliance.’ And coach Saban has a lot of institutional intellectual memory. He’s not just going to go to spring ball and say ‘everybody starts over.’ He’s going to take that experience from January and use that, and see if he can build on it.”

Mehenti, who’s covered college football for ESPN since 2011, compared Hurts’ rocky start to Louisville quarterback and current Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson’s first drive.

“Remember, Hurts’ first snap was a fumble,” Hurts said. “Might I remind you, Lamar Jackson’s first snap in college was an interception against Auburn. So sometimes you just have to wait and give somebody an opportunity. … He was coached (at Houston’s Channelview High School) by his father. No one’s a tougher coach on you than your father. And wouldn’t it be this guy’s luck, after being coached by your father, you’d think anybody other than your father would be easier to handle, he gets Nick Saban.”

You can read more about Mehenti’s meeting with the 1st & 10 Club here.