Jalen Hurts' Best Option was Listening to Nick Saban

Jalen Hurts had plenty of options when he left Alabama.

Turns out his best option was listening to Nick Saban.

Saban revealed this week in an interview with the Philadelphia Eagles official Twitter account that when Hurts graduated from Alabama and decided he wanted to transfer and play his final season elsewhere, Saban advised him to go to Oklahoma.

“I remember him coming into me and saying, ‘I could go to Miami,’ because the quarterback coach had gone to Miami as the offensive coordinator — the quarterback coach here, Dan Enos,” Saban said. “Mike Locksley got the head coaching job at Maryland. ‘I could go to Maryland or I could go to Oklahoma.’

Nick Saban talks in-depth about @JalenHurts’ development at Alabama in this exclusive interview with @EaglesXOs.#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/zTmphRzWiR
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 10, 2020

“I said ‘Jalen, where do they have the best players?’ Because he felt more comfortable going where he knew these guys (Enos and Locksley). And he said, ‘Well, I think they have the best players at Oklahoma.’ I said well we just played them (in the Orange Bowl), and they have some pretty good players on offense, too.

“I said, ‘You know I’ve always told you quarterback is a hard position to play if you don’t have good players around you. So if I was you, to create the most value — because you’ve got one year to do it — if you know you can be the starter there, go where they have the best players.’

“He did it and I think he did a great job for Oklahoma, as well.”

Hurts threw for nearly 4,000 yards and ran for almost 1,300 yards and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting as he led the Sooners to a fifth consecutive Big 12 championship and their fourth College Football Playoff semifinal in five years.

The Eagles drafted Hurts with the 53rd overall pick in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

During an appearance on NFL Network last week, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley was asked what kind of role Hurts might play on an Eagles team that just locked up its 27-year-old quarterback with a $128 million contract.

For starters, Riley doesn’t like the comparison of Hurts to New Orleans backup Taysom Hill, who has emerged as a multi-tool weapon for Sean Payton’s Saints offense behind Drew Brees.

It remains to be seen how the Eagles use @JalenHurts. But, let’s be clear. He’s a QB, not a gadget guy.

From my interview with @LincolnRiley @nflnetwork #NFLNow. pic.twitter.com/KmQNZ4ReKz
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) May 8, 2020

“Yeah, I think a little bit of those opinions are — I think, one, people haven’t really studied Jalen, his production, really watched the tape,” Riley said. “And when you see that, you’re going to see a guy that had one of the most efficient passing seasons in the history of college football this year.

“So you’re right. Taysom is a great player. I think there are similarities in that these guys can do a lot of things. But nothing against Taysom Hill — again, I’d love to have him on any football team that you’d ever have — but I do believe that Philadelphia and a lot of other teams that were interested in Jalen are looking at him purely as a quarterback.

“Excited about all of the things that he can do — bringing that winning attitude, bringing just a very versatile skill set in and I’m glad he got with a guy like (Eagles head coach) Doug Pederson, who will do a great job of developing him and using him in a lot of creative ways.”

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