Jalen Hurts: Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year

Current Philadelphia Eagle and former Sooner quarterback Jalen Hurts has been named Big 12 Male Athlete of the Year.

Per the Big 12 conference's press release: In his one season at Oklahoma, Hurts ended his campaign as the Heisman Trophy runner-up, while garnering All-America status from Sporting News (second team) and the Associated Press (third team). He led the Sooners to their fifth straight Big 12 championship and third consecutive appearance in the College Football Playoff.

The Houston native earned All-Big 12 First Team honors from the league’s coaches and media and was the Conference’s Newcomer of the Year by AP and Offensive Newcomer of the Year by the coaches. He was a finalist for the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award, Manning Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award and Senior CLASS Award.

In 2019, Hurts led the nation in yards per pass attempt (11.3; FBS record is 11.6) and ranked second in passing efficiency rating (191.2; fourth best in school history), yards per completion (16.3), points responsible for per game (22.9) and touchdowns accounted for (53). He ranked third in country in total offense (367.8 ypg), sixth nationally in completion percentage (.697; third best in school history), seventh in rushing touchdowns (20; second among QBs), eighth in passing yards (3,851) and 11th in passing touchdowns (32).

Hurts compiled 5,149 yards of total offense (3,851 passing, 1,298 rushing) for the second-highest figure in program history and set OU single-season records for rushing yards by a quarterback and points scored by a QB (126).

The senior became the first quarterback since 1981 (Darrell Shepard) to lead OU in scoring and the first since 1988 (Charles Thompson) to lead the Sooners in rushing yards. He was one of just two players nationally since at least 1996 to record 32-plus passing TDs and 18-plus rushing TDs in a season (Florida’s Tim Tebow had 32 and 23, respectively, in 2007 when he won the Heisman Trophy) and he became only third FBS player to register at least 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards by the 11th game of a season. Hurts was the only FBS player since 1996 to post a passing efficiency rating of 245.0 or better five times in the same season (minimum 15 attempts) and the only player to do so more than three times. Additionally, he was the only FBS player with more than three games with two-plus rushing touchdowns and two-plus passing TDs (he had five such performances). He rushed for at least 100 yards in five games.

In April’s NFL Draft, Hurts was selected in the second round as the No. 53 overall pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.

Academically, Hurts completed 24 hours of graduate coursework in human relations with a 3.38 GPA and was a two-time Sooner Scholar.

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