Nick Saban pays no mind to Jalen Hurts’ comments
Jalen Hurts spoke to the media with criticism of how Alabama’s quarterback competition is being handled, and Nick Saban handled it exactly how you’d expect him to.
Being the starting quarterback for the national title favorite is a lofty position. Alabama has a competition for the role heading into the season, between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, after the latter came off the bench and played well in the national title game. There has been some transfer drama and speculation from both sides, but don’t try to pressure Nick Saban into a decision before he’s ready to make one.
Saban keeps his players from the media, practically without exception as much as he can control it. So when Hurts spoke to the media with some pointed criticism about how the quarterback competition is being handled, Saban was sure to be asked about it.
On Wednesday, it happened. The six-time national title-winning coach started with some expected sentiment. But he also, quite effectively, let Hurts know where his place is.
"Every player has a right to express what he feels and what he thinks, and I think he has every right to do that with every coach or anybody in the organization who he has relationships with, which we certainly do quite often with all players at all positions,” Saban said, adding that “this is probably a lot more important to people outside this organization than it is to people inside. I don’t think it has any effect on our team."
"The rhetoric will not have anything to do with who’s the quarterback, “That will obviously be decided on the field by how people execute, how they do their job. The same parameters that we’ve talked about before in terms of who wins the team. And winning the team goes along with execution, leadership, players having confidence and belief. And that’s not going to change."
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Saban essentially classified Hurts’ comments as rhetoric, which is certain not to sit well with the junior signal caller who is 26-2 as a starter. But as an extension of the Bill Belichick coaching tree Saban pretty much couldn’t care less what a player thinks about how he handles things, or how said player might react to his words.