Jalen Hurts Super Bowl Berth Leads to Vigorous Alabama, Oklahoma Debate

The debate rages on after Hurts led the Eagles to the NFC championship over the weekend.

Before he was a Super Bowl-bound starting quarterback for the Eagles, Jalen Hurts had one of the most unique college football careers in recent memory. His current NFL success has fans and media members debating whether Alabama or Oklahoma gets to lay claim to him as one of their own.

Hurts began his career at Alabama in 2016, taking over as starting quarterback early on during his freshman season. He won SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year and led the team to a national championship appearance, where the Crimson Tide fell to Clemson. A year later, with the team back in the national championship against Georgia but struggling at the half, Hurts was pulled for Tua Tagovailoa, who led the team to a comeback win to capture the title. After sitting behind Tagovailoa as a junior, he transferred to Oklahoma in ’19 for his final season, finishing second in Heisman Trophy voting to Joe Burrow and earning All-Big 12 honors.

Hurts spent most of his college career at Alabama, and started most of the year for a national championship team, but posted his best season at Oklahoma and was drafted after his year in Lincoln Riley’s Sooners offense. 

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Now, he’s one win away from Super Bowl immortality, so naturally, the Crimson Tide and Sooners are vying for the lion’s share of credit as far as his college development goes.

The real Super Bowl:

Watching Alabama and Oklahoma fanbases scramble to claim Jalen Hurts now/first 🤣 https://t.co/zwDwXMTDl0

— Sanjay Kirpalani (@SanjayKirpalani) January 30, 2023

I’ll say it: there are 3 former Big 12 QBs in championship games today

Brock Purdy (Iowa State)
Patrick Mahomes (Texas Tech)
Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma)*

*two years at Alabama so ok hybrid

— Leah Vann (@LVann_Sports) January 29, 2023

Jalen Hurts was Heisman runner up at OU, played better than he ever did at Alabama where he was benched & even turned into gadget guy.

His time at Oklahoma prepared him for NFL & he wouldn't be where he is today without going to play for Riley at OU.

His NFL success is OU>Bama

— Landry Locker (@LandryLocker) January 24, 2023

Jalen Hurts developed into a Heisman finalist under Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma.

He also will go down in Alabama history for cultivating one of the greatest comebacks and picking up one of the greatest wins in the Nick Saban era. https://t.co/C7S1UXg53O

— Cole Thompson (@MrColeThompson) January 24, 2023

People get so weird about this lol

He started for 2 seasons and brought em to 2 CFP titles. Played well in one, poorly in another and was benched. Hurts himself respected the process enough to stay, and he delivered them to a THIRD CFP title game

Bama can claim him lol https://t.co/PHzeIbSJKl

— Diante Lee (@DianteLeeFB) January 27, 2023

Tired: Alabama and Oklahoma fans bickering over who gets to claim Jalen Hurts

Wired: pic.twitter.com/xYAzErstvF

— Tom Green (@Tomas_Verde) January 29, 2023

Perhaps the correct answer is the one offered by AL.com’s Joseph Goodman. In a column titled, “Jalen Hurts is America’s quarterback,” he argues that neither Alabama nor Oklahoma deserve the majority of the credit, which goes to Hurts himself.

“People are rooting for Hurts’ success because of how he managed his personal setbacks while in college,” Goodman writes. “He’s in the Super Bowl by way of Alabama and then Oklahoma. One school gave him the tools to compete, and the other put him back in the ring. It was Hurts himself who kept punching.”