Jalen Hurts

Early years

Hurts's parents are Pamela and Averion Hurts. Hurts has two siblings, his younger sister Kynnedy and his older brother, named after their father, Averion. Hurts's older brother is currently the starting quarterback for Texas Southern University in his senior year. Their parents still attend Jalen's and Averion's football games every week. Hurts attended Channelview High School in Channelview, Texas. Hurts's father, Averion, was the football coach of Channelview High School throughout his sons' high school careers. As a senior, he passed for 2,384 yards with 26 touchdown passes and rushed for 1,391 yards and 25 touchdowns. Hurts was a second-team all-district selection as a sophomore and was named the District 21-6A Overall MVP as a junior during his high school playing years. He played against the Texas A&M freshman standout running back Trayveon Williams throughout his high school career. Hurts was rated as a four-star recruit and was ranked among the top dual-threat quarterbacks in his class. Although Texas A & M made a strong push to recruit Hurts after the departure of their starting quarterback, Kyler Murray, they ultimately failed in their efforts and Hurts proceeded to commit to the University of Alabama on June 5th, 2015. He was recruited by Alabama's Defensive Line Coach Bo Davis and Offensive Coordinator Lane Kiffin. Hurts finished high school academically ranking 39th in his class. Throughout high school, Hurts also participated in powerlifting. As a sophomore in high school, Hurts was squatting 500 pounds of weight. He would eventually become Regional Finalist in the Powerlifting 198-pound weight class.

College career

As a true freshman at Alabama in 2016, Hurts competed to open the season as the starting quarterback. Blake Barnett started the first game, but by the second game Hurts had taken over the starting role, becoming the first true freshman to start at quarterback for Alabama in 30 years. Hurts produced a historic freshman season under head coach Nick Saban. He threw for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns with nine interceptions. His completion percentage was at 62.8 percent and he finished the season with a quarterback rating of 139.12. He rushed for a total of 954 yards and 13 touchdowns, breaking the Alabama single season record for rushing yards by a quarterback, surpassing Steadman Shealy's previous record of 791 yards. He finished the season with 36 overall touchdowns breaking Blake Sims's previous record for touchdowns in a single season for the Crimson Tide with a total of 35 which he set in 2014. Hurts became the first quarterback coached by Nick Saban to rush for more than 11 touchdowns in a single season. He was the first player in Alabama history to pass for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same game and the first quarterback to rush for 120 yards or more in multiple games. In the Iron Bowl game against Auburn, Hurts completed 75% of his passes, which set a new Iron Bowl record. Alabama concluded its 2016–2017 regular season with a perfect 12–0 (8–0 SEC) record. On November 30, 2016, Hurts was declared as one out of the ten finalists for the Manning Award which is given to the nation's top college quarterback. On December 3, 2016, he led his team to win the 2016 SEC Championship against the Florida Gators and was subsequently named SEC Offensive Player of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year, and received Freshman All- American from several publications. Hurts was featured on the cover page of Sports Illustrated College Football Playoff magazine on December 6, 2016.