Jalen Hurts reflects on devastating end to college career: ‘It hurts me in my heart’

Heartbreaking.

Jalen Hurts has had an exceptional college football career. After three years with Alabama, the dynamic quarterback transferred to Oklahoma for his final year of eligibility and led another team to the College Football Playoff.

But Hurts’ and the Sooners’ hopes for a national championship were quickly destroyed in the playoff semifinal game at the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl against LSU, which had a historically dominant first half on its way to a 63-28 win.

Although he had moments of brilliance, it was far from the Oklahoma quarterback’s best game. He threw 15-for-31 for 217 yards and one interception and ran for 43 yards and two touchdowns. He entered the game with a 71.8 completion percentage and was the Sooners’ leading rusher all season.

After the game, Hurts was clearly devastated about how his college career had just ended.

And when he was asked about it and his brief time with Oklahoma during his postgame press conference, he explained just how painful the experience was in this heartbreaking moment.

The 2019 Heisman Trophy finalist said:

“It’s hard to just sit here and reflect on four years, a whole year with my brothers this year, all of that right now. It hurts me. You talk about how much it means to you and the team — it’s supposed to hurt. This is not a good feeling. This is a feeling I’ve never felt before. It hurts me in my heart, you know. When I decided to come to this school, I told Coach [Lincoln] Riley, I’m going to go win you a national championship, and I failed to do that.

“And moving forward, I definitely hope — I’ve already told them — I hope that you guys learn from this. I hope everybody learns from this. And it hurts me the most because usually, when you come up short in something, you can come back and you can fix it. I can’t come back and fix it. I’ll never play college football again.”

Before going to Oklahoma, Hurts played for Alabama for three seasons and led the Crimson Tide to two College Football Playoff appearances. In the first one, they lost in the title game to Clemson but won the 2017-18 national championship — after Hurts was benched at halftime against Georgia in favor of then-freshman Tua Tagovailoa.

And then last season, he rode the bench for most of the year behind Tagovailoa, and when the starter was injured against the Bulldogs in the 2018 SEC championship game, Hurts took over and became the hero the team needed, leading the Crimson Tide to victory.

After Oklahoma’s loss in the Peach Bowl, LSU players congratulated Hurts on the end of his college career.

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