It took until late in the third quarter, but Alabama backup QB Jalen Hurts finally made an appearance in Saturday’s big win over Texas A&M.

That pushed Hurts to four games on the season — the limit for players who want to keep their redshirts intact.

However, during the broadcast, CBS analyst Gary Danielson said he thinks Hurts has bought in on the backup quarterback job and is OK with burning his redshirt year (via 247Sports):

“I actually think the die was cast in Game 2,” Danielson said during Hurts’ first appearance on the live broadcast. “Nick looked at Jalen Hurts and said, ‘I’ve got to get a backup quarterback ready and I want it to be you.’ And he needed him to be all-in. Jalen Hurts gets about half the snaps in practice. I’ve been watching Thursday practices (at Alabama) for 10 years. Starters usually get 75 percent (of the snaps) and now they split it a lot differently.

“The other factor is he wants to be an NFL quarterback, I think his thinking is, ‘I’m going to spend a year here getting good coaching from Dan Enos and Mike Locksley and throw to these great receivers and be a part of this wide open offense. If I redshirt, I learn nothing this year. But if I go somewhere else, are they going to make me a running QB? I don’t want to run. I know I can run.’ It’s an interesting dilemma for him and he decided on Alabama.”

It does seem as if Hurts has made up his mind, and all indications are that he’s going to stick it out with Alabama this year.

However, we should learn a lot more about his future plans this week, and it’s a safe bet that coach Nick Saban will be asked about it.