In January of 2018, as the chance for a fifth national championship was slipping away, Alabama Football Coach Nick Saban faced a difficult choice. Stay with the quarterback who got the team to the championship or turn to a freshman with a better passing arm.
Regardless of the outcome of Super Bowl LVII today (2/12/2023), and to your point, in the following collegiate season, Jalen Hurts acquitted himself as the consummate team player, backing up Tua Tagovailova all year. Then, in the 2018 SEC Championship, Tua was injured, and Hurts was called on to command a comeback from a two-touchdown deficit to Georgia, for an Alabama victory that USA Today notes was a "plot line... [that] even Hollywood screenwriters would have dismissed... as too improbable and overly sappy."
Regardless of the outcome of Super Bowl LVII today (2/12/2023), and to your point, in the following collegiate season, Jalen Hurts acquitted himself as the consummate team player, backing up Tua Tagovailova all year. Then, in the 2018 SEC Championship, Tua was injured, and Hurts was called on to command a comeback from a two-touchdown deficit to Georgia, for an Alabama victory that USA Today notes was a "plot line... [that] even Hollywood screenwriters would have dismissed... as too improbable and overly sappy."