Oklahoma Football: Jalen Hurts has picture-perfect spring debut

Jalen Hurts had a near-perfect Oklahoma football debut, wowing fans in the Sooners’ annual spring game while having some fun with his new teammates.

For all of his accolades, Nick Saban has never been all that closely tied to fun.  His teams are mentally and physically tough, their focus is championship-caliber. Like Saban himself, though, the time for smiling doesn’t come until well after the season is over and the trophies and banners have been hoisted high.

Things are a little different in Norman.

Under the guidance of Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, one of Saban’s former proteges had fun. That might be the best way to describe former Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts’ debut in the other shade of crimson at the Oklahoma spring game.

Hurts was unsurprisingly magnificent against a Sooner secondary that wasn’t anywhere close to as polished or highly regarded as that of the Crimson Tide. Still, Hurts put up 186 total yards, 174 of which came through the air, one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown.

It was after one of those touchdowns that Hurts, flocked by his teammates, approached the camera and greeted Sooner Nation with a beaming smile:

The moment captured, at least in part, what figures to be a memorable victory lap for the beloved quarterback. Outside of those in Austin, there are few fans in the nation rooting against Hurts this coming season and it’s not hard to understand why.

Hurts gets to push the buttons on one of the most prolific offensive attacks college football has seen in some time. He’ll follow in the footsteps of two Heisman Trophy winners with legitimate aspirations to add some hardware to his own mantel. A great spring game isn’t going to get him much closer to those goals, but it’s another small evidence that the decision to transfer to Oklahoma is going to work out extremely well for both Hurts and the Sooners.