Carnival of Soul

NORMAN — Jalen Hurts mostly keeps quiet.

The Oklahoma quarterback shies from attention when others might seek it. All the cliches fit: wise, mature beyond his years, an old soul. He listens to 1980s and 90s R&B music. When he’s controlling the auxiliary cord in OU’s weight room, that’s what gets played.

Some even describe his style as retro. Tight end Grant Calcaterra said teammates give him a hard time about the sandals he wears. Hurts sported a Cincinnati Reds cap Wednesday afternoon, and coincidentally or not, it’s a franchise that had its heyday in the 1970s.

Beneath that cap, Hurts spoke softly in his first media appearance since being named OU’s starting quarterback. His responses were direct and almost entirely without fluff.

“He’s not really outgoing,” receiver CeeDee Lamb said. “He’s kept to himself. If he feels the need to say something, he will. He’s not much of a vocal leader unless he feels the need to act on it.”

Hurts has made a habit of being the last player to leave the practice field in fall camp. While some of his teammates walk to the parking lot in groups, Hurts is often by himself.

Hurts was asked what he does when he’s not playing football or studying.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, call my friends, talk to my friends. I write.”

His thoughts are contained in those pages much more than they’re produced for voice recorders or television cameras.

“He didn’t really say a lot in the classroom setting, but he could very well express himself in writing,” said Tracy Sims, a public relations and advertising instructor at the University of Alabama.

Hurts graduated from Alabama with a degree in public relations. He came to Oklahoma as a graduate transfer to play his final season of college football.

Those closest to Hurts — his family and one of his best friends — either declined or did not respond to interview requests. His dad, Averion, coached him at Channelview High School on the east side of Houston. His older brother, Averion Jr., was a quarterback at Texas Southern.

But Sims and others in and around Tuscaloosa, Alabama all describe OU’s new starting quarterback in similar ways.

“There’s a calm that he seems to have on the field,” Sims said, “that he has off the field as well.”

•••

Cathy Wood met Hurts when he was a freshman at Alabama.

Hurts arrived in Tuscaloosa as the No. 4 dual-threat quarterback in the 2016 class. He entered that season third on Alabama’s quarterback depth chart behind Blake Barnett and Cooper Bateman.

But in a 52-6 season-opening win against Southern Cal, it was Hurts who solidified himself as the starter. He was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year in his freshman season after accounting for 2,780 passing yards, 954 rushing yards and 36 total touchdowns.

“To meet him, he was the most humble, quiet individual,” Wood said.

Wood directs the Tuscaloosa County Juvenile Detention Center. She’s not a diehard Alabama football fan, but she did end a phone call with “Roll Tide.”

The Alabama athletic department works with Wood to set up volunteering opportunities for student-athletes.

Wood, before she was director, remembers when Crimson Tide director of player development Denzel Devall gave her a list of upcoming volunteers.

Hurts was on it.

Wood went to the head of the juvenile detention center to tell him who was coming.

“It’s somebody named Jalen,” she remembers saying. “Jalen Hurts, or something like that.”

“WHAT?” he said.

“Yeah, I don’t know where he’s from or anything.”

“Cathy, just sit down,” he responded.

Wood’s appreciation of Hurts grew from there.

Hurts, even beyond his volunteering requirements, returned to the juvenile detention center as a motivational speaker. He played basketball with the kids while Wood worried about getting banished from Tuscaloosa had he twisted his ankle.

“Football is almost next to God for a lot of people,” Wood said. “He was adorned all the time with attention. He maintained his dignity. He was just the real deal. He was quiet, straight forward. He wasn’t impressed with himself, never gave that arrogant attitude. He taught the kids the importance of shaking hands and looking someone in the eye.”

Some of the kids grew their hair out, wanting to wear it in a bun like Hurts.

“He always managed to stretch himself and his schedule to help others,” Terry Saban, Nick Saban’s wife, wrote in an email to The Oklahoman. “I continue to have the highest regard for that young man and know that his character and his talent will take him far. Tuscaloosa will always welcome him back with open arms.”

•••

Sims, as both an academic adviser and professor to Hurts, worked with the quarterback on a specific goal: graduating in December 2018.

Hurts met that goal, allowing him to transfer to Oklahoma in January with immediate eligibility. He’ll start next Sunday against Houston, following in the footsteps of fellow transfer quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray — both of whom won the Heisman Trophy.

Graduating early wasn’t easy. The public relations curriculum at Alabama has five phases. Each is a prerequisite for the next.

“It really does take very careful planning to ensure that you get out in the time frame that you want to,” Sims said. “So that was the first thing that struck me about him, is that he was very determined to make sure he stuck to his graduation timeline.”

Hurts enrolled in Sims’ public relations writing class in the spring of 2018. She remembers him, unsurprisingly, as quiet and described his work ethic as methodical.

Even on a campus of more than 38,000 students, Hurts and Alabama football players attract attention in classrooms. Yet somehow Hurts managed to blend in.

“I would say that Jalen, in my experience, handled it best,” Sims said.

•••

It was deja vu for Damon West. Two years ago, almost to the day, West spoke in front of Hurts and the Alabama football team.

On Monday, West was in Norman sharing his story with the Sooners. And there was Hurts, sitting on the front row, taking notes on a speech he had already heard.

“I started out my presentation by telling Jalen how good it was to see him and how proud I was of him,” West said. “The humility and grace, and dignity and poise with which he handled his situation …”

West paused.

“His situation was tough, man.”

Hurts started 28 games in his freshman and sophomore seasons. He was 26-2 as Alabama’s starting quarterback and led his team to the national championship game in 2016.

Yet millions watched live as he lost his job in another national championship game.

Hurts was replaced in the 2017 title bout against Georgia by Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa — possessing the hype reminiscent of Hurts’ freshman year — led the Crimson Tide past the Bulldogs in a stunning comeback victory.

Hurts was relegated to a backup role all of last season before leading his own comeback victory against Georgia in the SEC Championship game.

“He was humbled in front of the country in a very public way,” West said. “But he didn’t let it beat him down like the carrot in the analogy. He didn’t turn soft. But he didn’t turn hard. He didn’t get calloused because of it. A lot of people would’ve done one of those two things.”

West talks a lot about three seemingly unrelated objects: carrots, eggs and coffee beans. West grew up in Port Arthur, Texas. He played quarterback at North Texas before a methamphetamine addiction took over his life.

West would later be known as the mastermind behind the Uptown burglaries in Dallas. They fueled his addiction. West was convicted in 2009 for a case that involved more than 50 break-ins and $1 million in thefts, according to The Dallas Morning News. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

He learned the coffee bean message in county jail. A fellow inmate asked him to imagine prison as a pot of boiling water. Whatever is in the pot is changed by heat and pressure. A carrot turns soft. An egg turns hard. But a coffee bean changes the name of the water to coffee, and everything in the pot is affected.

West was released on parole and now meets with football programs across the country as a motivational speaker and author.

Hurts, as he met with the media Wednesday, repeated the coffee bean analogy. It led to a few confused looks, but if anyone were to repeat such a story, it would be Hurts.

“Jalen Hurts is the coffee bean,” West said. “The story is the ultimate underdog story, the ultimate redemption story. We love stories of guys that get beat around the boxing ring for 12 rounds and get up at the end and win.”