PhillyGirl
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Meet Alabama's promising freshman quarterback and former powerlifter
Dad had a number in mind going into that first powerlifting meet.
Jalen Hurts was only a sophomore in high school. The most he had ever squatted to that point was 365 or 385 pounds. So his father, Averion Hurts, went to that first meet thinking it would be great if Jalen could get into the 400s.
So what happened?
Jalen's first squat was 385 pounds. He did it easily. Dad wanted him to move up to 405. Jalen decided to up the weight to 440.
"So I'm thinking, 'OK...,'" Averion Hurts said. "I didn't say anything. I was waiting because if he were to not get it, I was going to get after him."
He didn't have to.
A surprised and impressed Averion Hurts watched as his son successfully squatted 440 pounds. More impressive? Jalen squatted 470 pounds at a meet one week later. He then went into a meet the next week saying he wanted to squat 500 pounds. He did.
Yes, Jalen Hurts, Alabama's promising freshman quarterback, was squatting 500 pounds as a sophomore in high school.
There wasn't anyone on the Tide roster that squatted more than 555 pounds during the team's spring testing aside from linemen. Hurts, a quarterback, did 570 at a meet during his junior year of high school. The Channelview, Texas native bench-pressed 275 pounds and dead-lifted 585 pounds at that same event.
Competing in the 198-pound weight class, Hurts placed second out of 85 lifters and qualified for the Texas state powerlifting meet.
This isn't your typical quarterback. He's also not like most other freshmen. He's an exciting, dynamic player who many internally at Alabama believe will be a star at some point down the road.
"Very athletic," Tide star defensive lineman Jonathan Allen said of the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Hurts, the third-ranked dual-threat quarterback in this year's recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. "He picks up on the plays quickly. Great, hard worker. And that's the recipe for success: Come in and just do what you've got to do. Coaches are going to steer you in the right direction. If you just take the coaching, you'll have success."
Making an early impression
Averion Hurts was in attendance for Jalen's first practice at Alabama. It was during the buildup to the Tide's national championship game matchup against Clemson.
Jalen's task? To help the Tide defense prepare for star quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Deshaun Watson. So during that first practice, less than three hours after arriving at Alabama, Hurts was responsible for mimicking one of the top quarterbacks in the country while competing against arguably the nation's best defense.
Dad went in somewhat unsure of what to expect. He left feeling confident.
"During that practice, he made a couple of plays and a couple of moves, and I knew that he's going to be fine," Averion Hurts, who coached Jalen in high school, said. "He was trying to give them a good picture. But like I told him, that was a situation also where you've got the opportunity to let them know now that you can play. My opinion is that during that first week there he showed the coaches that they made the right choice and showed the players that he can play."
Then came the spring.
While the plays weren't always executed how coaches wanted them to be, Hurts produced some wow-type moments during both practices and scrimmages that showed his dual-threat ability.
Unprompted, a former Tide player texted AL.com after one of Alabama's first spring practices.
The message: "That freshman QB looked good today."
Hurts ran for 57 yards on 10 carries in the Tide's first spring scrimmage. There were then standout moments in later scrimmages like a 60-yard run against the Tide's first-team defense and a long pass he completed after eluding star outside linebacker Tim Williams in the backfield.
While Hurts struggled at times during Alabama's spring game, he produced the game's only touchdown, a 5-yard go-ahead scoring pass to Derek Kief with 2:48 left in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in the game.
The skill set
Hurts will remind you of Johnny Manziel at times because of his ability as a runner along with the ability to make multiple defenders miss in the backfield before completing a long pass down the field.
Like Manziel, Hurts, who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds during the Tide's spring testing, is dynamic as a runner but also capable of hurting a defense with his arm.
Playing in the talent-rich Houston area, Hurts led Channelview High School to a 7-4 record and a playoff berth as a senior last year. He threw for an average of 217 yards per game with 26 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. He also ran for 1,391 yards and 25 scores.
Averion Hurts, however, doesn't like the Manziel comparison.
"Manziel's kind of like a gunslinger to me," he said. "Jalen's not a gunslinger. He's just a kid that's really athletic and has the ability to make plays with his legs, but he's a pass-first kid. And for me as a coach, Johnny didn't pick up the playbook. Johnny had one or two reads, and that hurt him in the NFL. Jalen is more of a bigger Russell Wilson-type."
Hurts' personality, approach and lifestyle are also much more like Wilson than Manziel.
People internally at Alabama like how focused Hurts is and how low maintenance he is away from football. It's more impressive considering he doesn't turn 18 until August.
"In life, you see people make bad choices, and he's intelligent enough to be able to look at people make bad choices and realize that that's not a choice that he wants to make," Averion Hurts said. "He's not a party animal. He's a quarterback. He's a good-looking kid. He can talk. He could go out and do whatever he wants and have all the fun he wants. But he also knows that sometimes all that stuff comes with trouble, and he has enough role models that have told him that. So he'll go out sometimes, but he doesn't like a lot of attention. That's why he's not even really on social media."
This isn't new.
Hurts has been making decisions that showed an advanced maturity level since at least his freshman year of high school.
A 15-year old Hurts decided to give up two sports he had played most of his life, baseball and basketball.
When his father asked him why he was giving up baseball, Hurts responded, "How's it going to help me with football?" Basketball? The same response: "How's it going to help me with football?"
Growing pains
So why are other quarterbacks like Cooper Bateman and Blake Barnett more likely to win Alabama's starting quarterback job? Because Hurts is still raw, which was clear during the spring.
Not being comfortable with certain things within the Tide's offense led to Hurts scrambling more than he felt he should have during Alabama's first spring scrimmage.
He shared that with his father afterward.
His comfort level and confidence grew throughout the spring, but there were several times that coach Nick Saban was noticeably frustrated during Alabama's spring game because Hurts failed to recognize something, held onto the ball too long and took an unnecessary sack.
While Hurts finished 11 of 15 for 120 yards with the game-winning touchdown pass and no interceptions, he was sacked five times.
Most, if not all, of the sacks were avoidable.
Barnett and Hurts were on the same team. They were sacked a combined 11 times.
"I think both guys (Barnett and Hurts) made some good throws," Saban said. "Both guys showed their athleticism in terms of ability to extend plays. ... But there's also many occasions where they should have thrown the ball hot, didn't, got sacked (or) should have got rid of the ball, ran around, lost 20 yards on a sack. So some of the inexperience shows in some of the negative plays that sort of are like unforced errors in tennis.
"You don't need to be taking these plays if you really know what you were doing. It has nothing to do with ability. It has everything to do with awareness, experience, knowledge and then reacting to what happens. I think that's going to be the key to the drill with those guys in terms of their development."
Still, Hurts has been so impressive that he's at least in the mix to be the Tide's starting quarterback as a true freshman.
He's still impressing in the weight room, too.
The Alabama strength and conditioning staff wouldn't let him squat more than 455 pounds during the spring. During a recent summer workout, he finally got them to let him attempt 500 pounds.
He got it.
"Like I tell him, if he stays focused and stays true to his values, he'll be fine," Averion Hurts said. "I truly believe that he's built to handle this."
Dad had a number in mind going into that first powerlifting meet.
Jalen Hurts was only a sophomore in high school. The most he had ever squatted to that point was 365 or 385 pounds. So his father, Averion Hurts, went to that first meet thinking it would be great if Jalen could get into the 400s.
So what happened?
Jalen's first squat was 385 pounds. He did it easily. Dad wanted him to move up to 405. Jalen decided to up the weight to 440.
"So I'm thinking, 'OK...,'" Averion Hurts said. "I didn't say anything. I was waiting because if he were to not get it, I was going to get after him."
He didn't have to.
A surprised and impressed Averion Hurts watched as his son successfully squatted 440 pounds. More impressive? Jalen squatted 470 pounds at a meet one week later. He then went into a meet the next week saying he wanted to squat 500 pounds. He did.
Yes, Jalen Hurts, Alabama's promising freshman quarterback, was squatting 500 pounds as a sophomore in high school.
There wasn't anyone on the Tide roster that squatted more than 555 pounds during the team's spring testing aside from linemen. Hurts, a quarterback, did 570 at a meet during his junior year of high school. The Channelview, Texas native bench-pressed 275 pounds and dead-lifted 585 pounds at that same event.
Competing in the 198-pound weight class, Hurts placed second out of 85 lifters and qualified for the Texas state powerlifting meet.
This isn't your typical quarterback. He's also not like most other freshmen. He's an exciting, dynamic player who many internally at Alabama believe will be a star at some point down the road.
"Very athletic," Tide star defensive lineman Jonathan Allen said of the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Hurts, the third-ranked dual-threat quarterback in this year's recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. "He picks up on the plays quickly. Great, hard worker. And that's the recipe for success: Come in and just do what you've got to do. Coaches are going to steer you in the right direction. If you just take the coaching, you'll have success."
Making an early impression
Averion Hurts was in attendance for Jalen's first practice at Alabama. It was during the buildup to the Tide's national championship game matchup against Clemson.
Jalen's task? To help the Tide defense prepare for star quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Deshaun Watson. So during that first practice, less than three hours after arriving at Alabama, Hurts was responsible for mimicking one of the top quarterbacks in the country while competing against arguably the nation's best defense.
Dad went in somewhat unsure of what to expect. He left feeling confident.
"During that practice, he made a couple of plays and a couple of moves, and I knew that he's going to be fine," Averion Hurts, who coached Jalen in high school, said. "He was trying to give them a good picture. But like I told him, that was a situation also where you've got the opportunity to let them know now that you can play. My opinion is that during that first week there he showed the coaches that they made the right choice and showed the players that he can play."
Then came the spring.
While the plays weren't always executed how coaches wanted them to be, Hurts produced some wow-type moments during both practices and scrimmages that showed his dual-threat ability.
Unprompted, a former Tide player texted AL.com after one of Alabama's first spring practices.
The message: "That freshman QB looked good today."
Hurts ran for 57 yards on 10 carries in the Tide's first spring scrimmage. There were then standout moments in later scrimmages like a 60-yard run against the Tide's first-team defense and a long pass he completed after eluding star outside linebacker Tim Williams in the backfield.
While Hurts struggled at times during Alabama's spring game, he produced the game's only touchdown, a 5-yard go-ahead scoring pass to Derek Kief with 2:48 left in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference in the game.
The skill set
Hurts will remind you of Johnny Manziel at times because of his ability as a runner along with the ability to make multiple defenders miss in the backfield before completing a long pass down the field.
Like Manziel, Hurts, who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds during the Tide's spring testing, is dynamic as a runner but also capable of hurting a defense with his arm.
Playing in the talent-rich Houston area, Hurts led Channelview High School to a 7-4 record and a playoff berth as a senior last year. He threw for an average of 217 yards per game with 26 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. He also ran for 1,391 yards and 25 scores.
Averion Hurts, however, doesn't like the Manziel comparison.
"Manziel's kind of like a gunslinger to me," he said. "Jalen's not a gunslinger. He's just a kid that's really athletic and has the ability to make plays with his legs, but he's a pass-first kid. And for me as a coach, Johnny didn't pick up the playbook. Johnny had one or two reads, and that hurt him in the NFL. Jalen is more of a bigger Russell Wilson-type."
Hurts' personality, approach and lifestyle are also much more like Wilson than Manziel.
People internally at Alabama like how focused Hurts is and how low maintenance he is away from football. It's more impressive considering he doesn't turn 18 until August.
"In life, you see people make bad choices, and he's intelligent enough to be able to look at people make bad choices and realize that that's not a choice that he wants to make," Averion Hurts said. "He's not a party animal. He's a quarterback. He's a good-looking kid. He can talk. He could go out and do whatever he wants and have all the fun he wants. But he also knows that sometimes all that stuff comes with trouble, and he has enough role models that have told him that. So he'll go out sometimes, but he doesn't like a lot of attention. That's why he's not even really on social media."
This isn't new.
Hurts has been making decisions that showed an advanced maturity level since at least his freshman year of high school.
A 15-year old Hurts decided to give up two sports he had played most of his life, baseball and basketball.
When his father asked him why he was giving up baseball, Hurts responded, "How's it going to help me with football?" Basketball? The same response: "How's it going to help me with football?"
Growing pains
So why are other quarterbacks like Cooper Bateman and Blake Barnett more likely to win Alabama's starting quarterback job? Because Hurts is still raw, which was clear during the spring.
Not being comfortable with certain things within the Tide's offense led to Hurts scrambling more than he felt he should have during Alabama's first spring scrimmage.
He shared that with his father afterward.
His comfort level and confidence grew throughout the spring, but there were several times that coach Nick Saban was noticeably frustrated during Alabama's spring game because Hurts failed to recognize something, held onto the ball too long and took an unnecessary sack.
While Hurts finished 11 of 15 for 120 yards with the game-winning touchdown pass and no interceptions, he was sacked five times.
Most, if not all, of the sacks were avoidable.
Barnett and Hurts were on the same team. They were sacked a combined 11 times.
"I think both guys (Barnett and Hurts) made some good throws," Saban said. "Both guys showed their athleticism in terms of ability to extend plays. ... But there's also many occasions where they should have thrown the ball hot, didn't, got sacked (or) should have got rid of the ball, ran around, lost 20 yards on a sack. So some of the inexperience shows in some of the negative plays that sort of are like unforced errors in tennis.
"You don't need to be taking these plays if you really know what you were doing. It has nothing to do with ability. It has everything to do with awareness, experience, knowledge and then reacting to what happens. I think that's going to be the key to the drill with those guys in terms of their development."
Still, Hurts has been so impressive that he's at least in the mix to be the Tide's starting quarterback as a true freshman.
He's still impressing in the weight room, too.
The Alabama strength and conditioning staff wouldn't let him squat more than 455 pounds during the spring. During a recent summer workout, he finally got them to let him attempt 500 pounds.
He got it.
"Like I tell him, if he stays focused and stays true to his values, he'll be fine," Averion Hurts said. "I truly believe that he's built to handle this."
