Alabama's quarterback battle remains the most impactful offseason position question, and with the Tide's A-Day spring game on the horizon this weekend, it's taken center stage in the college football world. On Thursday afternoon, Bleacher Report published a story on Jalen Hurts featuring quotes from his father, indicating that his son could explore transfer options should Tua Tagovailoa, not Hurts, win the starting job in Tuscaloosa this summer.
"Coach Saban's job is to do what's best for his team. I have no problem with that," Averion Hurts said. "My job is to do what's best for Jalen -- and make no mistake, Jalen is a quarterback, and he wants to play quarterback. He loves Alabama, loves Coach Saban and everything about that place. But he wants to play, and he will play."
The elder Hurts seems to think highly of his son's impact in the transfer market.
"Well, he'd be the biggest free agent in college football history," he said, according to the report.
Saban was asked about the report on Thursday afternoon after practice. He said that he and Hurts' father had a meeting after the second scrimmage of spring practice -- the contents of which he'd prefer to keep private -- that by his account was "positive" for all parties.
"I think we all want the same thing for players who compete on our team, regardless of position," Saban said, via AL.com. "Even though there's going to be a significant effort on a lot of folks' part in this room obviously, want to make this a very public thing. But it's going to be handled in a very private matter. In our conversation, I was very positive and upbeat. Jalen has done a great job. He's made a significant amount of improvement. His dad was very positive."
Hurts will be the QB1 when Alabama takes the field on Saturday for the A-Day spring game, but only because Tagavailoa has been sidelined by a hand injury that will keep him out of practice until fall camp.
