As someone who is around dozens of people in Jalen Hurts’ generation, Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley has a pulse on trends among Hurts’ peers.

What Hurts did following his demotion to backup quarterback this season after he was replaced during last year’s national championship game is an outlier. Locksley went as far as to say it’s unheard of in this day and age with kids that are coming up.

“In a generation that swipes if they don’t like something, he didn’t,” Locksley said.

Locksley, speaking with Arkansas radio host Bo Mattingly, recalled his conversations with Hurts as the depth chart decision was made. How it wasn’t easy to explain to a former SEC Offensive Player of the Year who had gone 26-2 in his career that he would now be a backup.

“Some of the conversations that I’ve had with Jalen is somehow, the world always rights itself, that’s just the natural balance of it,” Locksley said. “Nobody could give him the answers as to what happened, how it happened, but that the situation was what it was. He’s the backup quarterback. And that all he could do was prepare himself so that if in fact he was ever given the opportunity to go out there and lead the team, that he put himself in position to put his best foot forward and I think that’s what he did and it’s amazing.”

Locksley, who won the Broyles Award this week as the top assistant coach in the country, and recently accepted the head coaching job at Maryland, said Hurts’ behavior was a testament to his character, and that he gained a ton of respect.

Hurts’ play was highlighted last week when he came off the bench to replace an injured Tua Tagovailoa and led Alabama to a come-from-behind SEC Championship win over Georgia in Atlanta.