Alabama football has a coach and a quarterback who seek the unattainable. Jalen Hurts and Nick Saban were raised by fathers who taught them to strive for perfection.
In a recent ESPN interview with Kirk Herbstreit and Ian Fitzsimmons, Alabama football quarterback Jalen Hurts talked about the influences of his older brother and father. The two men, both named Averion, taught Jalen about hard work and perseverance, about taking care of business no matter the circumstances.
When Jalen and his family describe the importance of those lessons, it is almost like Saban is talking. Actually, it sounds like two Sabans, Nick and Nick Sr.
Quarterbacks are shaped to think like and be an extension of their head coach on the field. Thanks to Averion Hurts Sr. and Nick Saban Sr., Jalen Hurts and Nick Saban began their player/coach relationship with a shared perspective.
Almost every Alabama football fan knows the Saban car-washing story. When Nick was 11 or 12, washing cars for his Dad, he learned to get them spotless. If Nick Sr. saw one spot after a washing, young Nick had to wash the entire car again. The lesson was: Take no shortcuts, there is one way to do things, the correct way.
The near-dark, end of practice story from Nick’s youth is another story. At the end of each practice, Nick Saban Sr. ran his youth players up a hill to a tree line. Nick Saban could not see the treeline clearly in the near darkness so every player was required to break a leaf off a tree and run back down and hand it to their coach. The lesson: Leave nothing to doubt.
Averion Hurts raised his sons the same way. Reported by Bama Online, Jalen’s Dad described the reasons he and his son picked Alabama.
"it was just something about Alabama. And that was after you peeled back the Alabama mystique. It was the programs they had set up, the challenges ahead and then one of the biggest things was he was used to playing for one of those kind of hardass coaches. That felt more like home."
Jalen explained his father’s influence in the ESPN interview,
"I grew up being a ball boy, grew up watching my brother play and grew up watching my dad coach … And that kind of groomed me to be who I am now, and the conversations that I got to sit in on, the butt-chewings, whatever it was, I think it kind of made me who I was. I’m happy I got to experience all those things as a child."
Averion Hurts was a taskmaster like Nick Sr. Speaking of how he knew Jalen would respond to Nick Saban, Averion said,
"It’s not like Coach Saban was going to break him, because he’d already been geared to that. If he went there and took an ass-chewing, as Coach Saban calls it, it wasn’t his first and it probably wasn’t the best."
Pursuit of Perfection is Path to Excellence
A few months ago we shared a perspective that the Secret to the Saban Process is there is no secret. Another player with a strong Saban mindset is Minkah Fitzpatrick. Minkah says Saban “wants everything done perfectly.” Minkah understands demanding perfection does not lead to perfection. Like life, football is too complicated to achieve perfection. But the pursuit of perfection is the path to the highest excellence.
Kirk Herbstreit asked Jalen how do he and Alabama football stay immune to the assumptions the Tide and Clemson will again play for a national championship. Jalen’s answer sounded like a Nick Saban scripted answer, “we don’t play perfect, on every play.” Nick Saban Sr., Averion Hurts Sr., Nick Saban and Jalen Hurts were and are content with never being satisfied.
What sounded like a scripted answer from Jalen is actually a shared common bond. Seek the unattainable goal of perfection and everything else will take care of itself.
Next: The 10 Best Alabama QB's of All-Time
The best Alabama quarterback list does not include Jalen Hurts yet. The sophomore is rapidly advancing upward for multiple Alabama football records. We may need to revise our ’10 Best’ list before Jalen leaves Alabama.