Quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Josh Jacobs played their first seasons at Alabama in 2016. While Hurts had been a coveted recruit as a dual-threat QB, Jacobs didn’t know he’d be joining the Crimson Tide until National Signing Day.

As an early enrollee, Hurt hosted Jacobs’ visit to Tuscaloosa on the final recruiting weekend. During Jacobs’ recent appearance on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, the hosts wanted to know if Hurts had the same demeanor then that he displays now as the unflappable captain and Super Bowl MVP of the Philadelphia Eagles.

“He’s always been like that,” Jacobs said. “He’s funnier and goofier than people think. Like, he don’t act like it in the media, but in the locker room, he’s a guy. But he’s always been like how he is.”

“Constantly just putting out amazing quotes?” host Taylor Lewan asked about Hurts.

“He got them quotes from (Alabama coach Nick) Saban,” Jacobs said to laughter. “Obviously, he’s got some of his own things, too, and his dad was a coach, so he’s been being trained this way his whole life.

“But Saban, he’s the first that I’ve ever seen have a quote for everything in life, literally, and to have it all throughout the building. Like, he got a saying for literally everything. I’m not even playing.

“But Saban, he’s just one of those dudes that he’s just so different — the way that he thinks, the way that he prepares, the way that he goes about his business on a day-to-day basis. I’ve never seen somebody in my life where everything is so structured and calculated. Like, if I eat at 3 o’clock, he’s eating at 3 o’clock every day, and if he eats at 3:02, somebody’s getting cussed out. He was just different, bro. But that’s what made me understand why he’s so special and why he is who he is, because he does things nobody else would do, for real.”

Saban coached Alabama from the 2007 through the 2023 seasons. Jacobs said Saban had the right message when the running back finally came to the attention of the Crimson Tide and a few other major college football programs late in the recruiting process.

Jacobs said he split the last recruiting weekend between Missouri and Alabama, and the Tigers helped convince him the Tide was the way to go if he got an offer from Alabama.

“I’m going to tell you the main, main, main reason why I signed with Alabama,” Jacobs said. “When I went to Mizzou, and they found out I was only going to stay for partial of the time to take half the time to go (to Alabama) because it was the last recruiting weekend because I was so late to be able go there, they made a whole PowerPoint of how Bama is this and how I wasn’t going to play there, like how my chances of playing there were very slim.

“And then when I went to Bama and I talked to Saban, we never even talked about football. He just talked to me. He was like, ‘This is how I can help you become a better man. This is how I can grow you as a man.’ And that sold me. That was enough for me, because like I said, at that time I’m not too much really thinking about football because I’m like that’s not really a real reality for me. So I’m like, ‘I want to be good, I want to play, but I want to go to school.’

“So when he did that, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be the person that will really teach me and help me grow up and develop me.’ That’s why I ended up choosing them.”

In the NFL, Jacobs has been a four-time 1,000-yard rusher, three-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro. But at Alabama, Jacobs started three games in three seasons.

Hurts was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman in 2016 and paced the Crimson Tide to back-to-back appearances in the CFP national-championship game. After being displaced from the starting lineup by Tua Tagovailoa in 2018, Hurts transferred to Oklahoma and finished as the runner-up for the 2019 Heisman Trophy.

In the 2020 NFL Draft, Jacobs was the 24th selection and Hurts the 53rd pick.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.