We all remember the 2018 national championship game. Nick Saban pulled Jalen Hurts at halftime, threw in a freshman named Tua Tagovailoa, and Alabama stormed back to beat Georgia in overtime. It’s one of the most famous coaching decisions in college football history. But what was it like inside that quarterback room before that night ever happened?
Mac Jones, who was the third-string QB on that 2017 Alabama team, just gave us a pretty clear picture. And it sounds like it wasn’t exactly a buddy comedy in there.
Jones went on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast and talked about the dynamic between Tagovailoa and Hurts during that championship season. According to Jones, via On3 Sports, the tension was real. Not in a fistfight kind of way. More like you could feel it when you walked in the room.
“It was interesting, because early on, they were probably, ‘This guy’s a non-threat,’ kind of a cool guy … that’s how they viewed me, kind of like a little bro,” Jones said. “We were all cool, but they were definitely competing. You could feel like a little bit of tension in the room, and I was always in the middle – it was like Jalen, Tua, and me in the middle.”
Think about the situation from Hurts’ perspective. He was coming off a 2016 season where he went undefeated as a starter, led the Tide to the national championship game as a freshman, and had every reason to believe he was the guy. Then the coaching staff brings in Tagovailoa, a five-star recruit with a left arm that could throw through a wall, and suddenly there’s a push to get him on the field.
“It’s not like they were fighting or anything. But think about it, Jalen (is coming off of the 2016 season where) you’re the man, go to a natty as a freshman, you’re winning every game you play, and they bring in Tua and they’re kind of starting to kind of push Tua on him,” Jones said.
The 2018 season rolled around and Tagovailoa was the starter with Hurts as his backup. Hurts handled it about as well as anyone could, considering he transferred to Oklahoma after that year and then put together a Heisman-caliber season. Now all three of those guys are in the NFL. Jones is backing up Brock Purdy in San Francisco, Tagovailoa is the starter in Miami, and Hurts just led Philadelphia to a Super Bowl.
It’s all water under the bridge now, obviously. But hearing Jones break down that room dynamic is a good reminder that even on the most dominant teams in college football history, things aren’t always smooth behind the scenes. Especially when you’ve got two alpha competitors who both know they’re talented enough to start.
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