EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.

Jalen Hurts made a career of overcoming adversity, beginning with his first game at Alabama.

Hurts impressed during the spring and fall of his true freshman year, but redshirt freshman Blake Barnett — a former five-star recruit from California — earned the start for the 2016 season-opener vs. USC in Arlington, Texas. Alabama’s first two possessions ended in punts and without a first down, and Hurts got into the game the third time the Crimson Tide had the ball.

He promptly fumbled the ball away on first down.

Alabama’s next two series resulted in punts, but USC had managed just three points. Coach Nick Saban stuck with Hurts, and boy did it pay off.

Hurts threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to ArDarius Stewart on third-and-13, sparking a 52-6 rout of the Trojans. What looked to be a marquee matchup between two Top 20 teams turned into a laugher.

Alabama had found a star in Hurts, who threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more. It was a phenomenal debut for a true freshman, and a sign of things to come.

“I think Jalen, each series that he played, got more and more comfortable,” Saban said afterward. “He adds a dimension with his athleticism and his ability to run that I think is very effective, and I think that that actually opened up the running game.”

Hurts had a fantastic all-around season as a freshman, passing for 2,837 yards and 23 touchdowns with nine interceptions and rushing for 954 yards and 13 scores. He threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in a 51-3 rout of Mississippi State in mid-November, a week after he’d run 21 yards in the fourth quarter for the game’s only touchdown in a 10-0 victory over LSU.

Alabama made it through the season undefeated, and beat Florida 54-16 in the SEC championship game. Hurts was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year, the first true freshman to win the award since Georgia’s Herschel Walker in 1980.

Barnett was long gone by then. He left the team in late September, and by early December had landed at Arizona State (he ultimately played one season with the Sun Devils before transferring again, ending his career at South Florida).

The Crimson Tide beat Washington 24-7 in the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal before losing to Clemson 35-31 in a classic national championship game. Hurts accounted for a pair of touchdowns in that game, but began to show the passing inconsistency that would plague him for the remainder of his Alabama career.

Hurts passed for 2,081 yards and 17 touchdowns with just one interception in 2017, adding 855 yards and eight scores rushing for an Alabama team that lost just once in the regular season (at Auburn) and earned a spot in the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight year. It was at halftime of the national championship game in Atlanta that Saban famously benched Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa, who led the Crimson Tide to a comeback win over Georgia and threw the game- and title-winning touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith in overtime.

Hurts said all the right things despite his disappointment and ultimately elected to stay at Alabama rather than transfer away during the offseason. As Tagovailoa put up otherworldy passing numbers for another dominant Crimson Tide team in 2018, Hurts patiently waited on his turn.

It came in the SEC championship game (ironically vs. Georgia and again in Atlanta), when Tagovailoa injured his ankle in the fourth quarter. Hurts entered the game with Alabama down 28-21, and it was like he’d never left.

Hurts led the Crimson Tide to two touchdowns in the final 5:19, the first a 10-yard bullet of a pass to Jerry Jeudy in the end zone and the second his own 15-yard run. It was a Hollywood-style redemption story for Hurts, whose performance had Saban nearly in tears in the post-game.

“I’ve probably never been more proud of a player than Jalen,” Saban said, barely able to keep his composure.

“It’s unprecedented to have a guy that won as many games as he won … start as a freshman, only lose a couple of games the whole time that he was the starter, and then all of a sudden he’s not the quarterback. How do you manage that? How do you handle that? You’ve got to have a tremendous amount of class and character to put team first, knowing your situation is not what it used to be.”

Tagovailoa returned for the playoff, throwing four touchdown passes in a 45-34 victory over Oklahoma — and Kyler Murray, the man who had beaten him out for the Heisman Trophy — in the Orange Bowl. Alabama lost 44-16 to Clemson in the national championship game, with Hurts playing a handful of snaps late.

That would be Hurts’ last game at Alabama, as he transferred to Oklahoma prior to the next season. He had a spectacular year for the Sooners in 2019, throwing for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushing for 1,298 yards and 20 TDs — finishing second in the Heisman voting behind LSU’s Joe Burrow.

Hurts was selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, and became the team’s starter late in his rookie season. In 2024, he not only led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, but was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Hurts remains beloved in Tuscaloosa, as renowned as much for the humility, unselfishness and character he showed after being benched in 2017 as for his production when he was on the field. And it all started with a 39-yard throw to ArDarius Stewart against USC.

Coming Wednesday: Our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 38, the last time Alabama played one of its SEC rivals on the road.