With only one season of college eligibility remaining, Jalen Hurts is wisely looking ahead and not focusing on the past.

Oklahoma’s new quarterback hasn’t yet been named the program’s starting quarterback, that will be something the Sooners will certainly make him earn before doing so, but Hurts is no stranger to offseason QB competitions and having to earn everything he gets. That’s what he did during his entire time in Tuscaloosa from the moment he walked on campus as an early enrollee and it’s something he did up until the latest championship game against Clemson.

Now that he’s playing football in Norman, nothing has changed according to Sooner assistant Shane Beamer. The former Georgia assistant has faced Hurts on the field and now gets to work with the former Crimson Tide signal caller in 2019.

In a recent interview with Jason Kersey of The Athletic, Beamer marveled at the maturity he’s heard about and witnessed in person from Hurts this offseason at Oklahoma.

“I’ll never forget, we were playing in that national championship game and I remember Kirby coming in to the coaches at halftime of the national championship game and telling our staff at Georgia, ‘Don’t be shocked if he makes a quarterback change.’ I’m sitting there thinking to myself, ‘Jalen Hurts is the SEC Player of the Year and just won 14 games. There’s no way.’ And then to see that happen and how he handled it … you know, I wasn’t really paying attention during the game, but then going back and reading the articles and seeing how he handled the postgame and during the game, tons of respect for him. And then this past season and the way he’s handled everything here. I mean, he’s come in here and hasn’t said a negative thing about Alabama. He’s very much focused on the future moving forward.”

While things may not have exactly worked out the way Hurts may have envisioned them when he started his career at Alabama, it’s great to see he still has love for the program that helped him become the player he is today. Who knows, Oklahoma and Alabama met in the College Football Playoff last season and there’s always a chance that happens again next season.

If it does, don’t expect Hurts to turn it into a revenge game, no matter how much some may attempt to turn it into just that.