Alabama head coach Nick Saban says he advised former Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts to transfer to Oklahoma over his other top choices, Maryland and Miami.
Hurts had been replaced as a starter by Tua Tagovailoa as the starting quarterback at Alabama and decided to transfer after three seasons with the Crimson Tide.
Each of his top three choices made sense. Oklahoma under head coach Lincoln Riley had produced the previous Heisman Trophy winners — Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray — both transfers and both went No. 1 overall in the following NFL drafts. Maryland had just hired Alabama’s co-offensive coordinator Mike Locksley to be their head coach. Meanwhile, Miami had hired Alabama’s quarterback coach Dan Enos as their offensive coordinator.
Saban recounted his sound advise to Hurts in an interview with the Philadelphia Eagles’ website.
“I said ‘Jalen where do they have the best players? Because he felt more comfortable going where he knew these guys. And he said, ‘Well, I think they have the best players at Oklahoma. ‘I said well we just played them, 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.'”
Nick Saban / Eagles.com
Hurts chose Oklahoma. He went on to throw for 3,851 yards passing and 32 touchdowns against eight interceptions while completing 69.7% of his passes in his lone season there. He was the Heisman runner-up to LSU’s Joe Burrow. Hurts was selected in the second round of this year’s NFL Draft by the Eagles.
“That’s no disrespect to anybody else, the guys that worked here and did a great job here, it’s what’s best for you. That’s how you have to make this decision right now. He did it and I think did a great job for Oklahoma.”
Nick Saban / Eagles.com
Maryland ultimately landed Virginia Tech-transfer Josh Jackson. He didn’t has as much success as Hurts did at Oklahoma. Jackson completed 47.4% of his passes for 1,274 yards and 12 touchdowns against six interceptions in 10 games.
