Report: Jalen Hurts to transfer from Alabama if he loses out on QB battle
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Make no mistake about it, Jalen Hurts is a quarterback. He’s also a starter. According to his father, neither one of those facts will change next season.
During an interview with Bleacher Report, Averion Hurts, Jalen’s father, stated that his son has no plans of either switching positions or sitting on the bench in the event that he loses the quarterback battle with Tua Tagovailoa this offseason.
"Coach Saban's job is to do what's best for his team. I have no problem with that," Averion Hurts told Bleacher Report. "My job is to do what's best for Jalen—and make no mistake, Jalen is a quarterback, and he wants to play quarterback. He loves Alabama, loves Coach Saban and everything about that place. But he wants to play, and he will play…”
Jalen started all 14 games for Alabama last season, finishing the year with 2,081 passing yards and 17 touchdowns and one interception. He also finished second on the team with 855 rushing yards and eight scores on the ground.
The Houston, Texas native has led the Crimson Tide to two straight national championship games and is 26-2 as a starter. However, he was replaced by Tagovailoa in the second half of last year’s national championship game against Georgia after completing just 3 of 8 passes for 21 yards.
"I told Jalen, you f--ked up, you opened the door and put yourself in this situation," Averion Hurts said in the article. "Now it's up to you to dig yourself out.”
Jalen entered this spring in competition with Tagovailoa for the starting role. However, Tagovailoa broke a bone in his throwing hand during Alabama’s first spring practice on March 20 and re-injured the hand last week causing the Crimson Tide to shut him down for the rest of the spring.
Jalen will start for the first-team offense during Alabama’s A-Day game on Saturday but will likely have to wait until the quarterback battle resumes in the fall in order to truly secure his starting spot.
This offseason there have been assumptions that if the rising junior was to lose out to Tagovailoa he would switch positions next season. However, Averion made clear that wouldn’t be the case for his son.
"All he has ever wanted to do was play quarterback," Averion said in the article. "He's not a tight end or an H-back or anything else. He's a quarterback.”
And if Tagovailoa was to win the job?
"Well, he'd be the biggest free agent in college football history,” Averion said.
If Jalen was to transfer, it would leave Alabama with just two scholarship quarterbacks — Tagovailoa and Mac Jones — on its roster. After redshirting his first year on campus last season, Jones has shown great promise this spring. The former four-star recruit drew glowing reviews from head coach Nick Saban following Alabama’s second scrimmage over the weekend.
“He's made more and more good plays. We feel really good about his development,” Saban said. “We're just trying to get him to focus on being the best player that he can be. Because he's going to be in position this year where he's not going to be far away from having to play.”
With Tagovailoa out, both Jalen and Jones will take center stage during A-Day as the annual scrimmage will be televised nationally on ESPN at 1 p.m. inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Depending on how this offseason unfolds, Alabama fans could be watching both its former and future quarterback compete on the afternoon.