Nick Saban plans to keep playing both Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts all season"I understand how unique a situation this is," Saban said. "I don't know of any other precedent at any time in college football where a guy started 28 games, won 26 of them and then somebody took his place. That's never happened. So that's hard for Jalen, and it's hard for me. I'm a loyal guy and loyal to the guys who get out there and lay it on the line for you. You want to be fair to all of your players, but you also want to be fair to your team.
"We needed both quarterbacks last year, and we'll need them both again this year."
With the NCAA's new redshirt rules, a player can play up to four games in a season and still keep his redshirt year. Hurts is on track to graduate in December and could transfer and play immediately somewhere else next season as a graduate transfer. There has been some speculation that he could choose to play only in an emergency situation after Saturday's game against No. 22 Texas A&M, which would be the fourth game of the season for Alabama. That way, he would still have two years of eligibility remaining if he did choose to transfer.
Saban acknowledged having discussions with Hurts at the beginning of the season regarding various scenarios, but said Hurts has been nothing but team-oriented.
"Every time I've talked to Jalen since the season started, he's said, 'Coach, I want to play,' and has never said otherwise," Saban said. "He's done everything we've asked him to do. He's never asked not to play in a game. He says he's ready to play and has practiced well and prepared well. Jalen's a competitor, and the kids on this team respect him. They respect both quarterbacks.
"And I think it says a lot about both kids that neither one of them has ever said a bad word about the other."
This kind of thing makes me want to gush about how amazing both of these young men are. Goodness, what did we do to deserve both Tua and Jalen? RTR