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Jalen Hurts relives being benched for Tua Tagovailoa in national title game
By Adam Spencer
Published:
At halftime of the 2017 College Football Playoff title game between Alabama and Georgia, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban made a tough decision, benching starting QB Jalen Hurts for backup Tua Tagovailoa.
The rest, as they say, is history. Tagovailoa led the Tide to a comeback win, claiming a national championship for Alabama. Hurts eventually spent the 2018 season as Tagovailoa’s backup before finishing his career at Oklahoma.
In an “Outside the Lines” segment on ESPN, Hurts relived that pivotal moment:
“That’s a relationship that’ll never go away. I talk to him and kept in touch with him all year.”@JalenHurts tells @JeremySchaap about his relationship with @Tuaamann as they both enter the 2020 NFL Draft. pic.twitter.com/ogcEIMUO5k
— Outside the Lines (@OTLonESPN) March 7, 2020
“I’m a competitor and I would’ve loved to come back and bring the team back like I’d done many times before,” Hurts said. “But it happened the way it did and we were national champions at the end of it. Put emotions to the side. I’m not a robot, but you (grow) out of yourself and into the team.
“Me being emotional, what good would that have done to the guys around me? The joy of being able to hold up a national championship trophy and achieve that goal as a team regardless of how I got there, it’s a joyful moment.”
That’s a classy thing for Hurts to say, and ever since that moment following the 2017 season, he’s shown that he truly means what he says. In fact, he even added that he stayed in touch with Tagovailoa this past season.
Hurts is an easy guy to root for.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
