Eight years ago, Alabama defeated Georgia in the National Championship Game after Nick Saban made a bold decision. Trailing 13-0 at halftime, the Crimson Tide head coach benched Jalen Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa. Hurts threw for 21 yards, but Tagovailoa led Alabama to a 26-23 overtime win with 166 yards and three touchdowns.
ESPN shared never-before-seen locker-room footage of Saban telling the quarterbacks his choice in the "Saban" documentary series. The video shows him quickly making the announcement before walking away. "We'll choose as we go, but you're gonna start in the second half," Saban told Tagovailoa.
"And then we're gonna play two guys." Discussing the moment for the documentary, Saban recalled telling his staff what he wanted to do before informing the players. "I knew walking off the field at halftime that that was the time," Saban said. "So I walk into the locker room -- we always met in the coaches' locker room with the coaches first -- and I say to them, 'We need to change quarterbacks.' And everybody looks at me like, are you crazy?
We need to throw the ball to win the game. And I think Tua would give us a better chance to do that based on what I see happening on the field.'" His offensive coordinator, Brian Daboll, asked who would tell Hurts he's getting benched. Saban realized the burden would belong to him.
"I said, 'Does that mean you want me to tell him?'" Saban recalled. "He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Okay.'" The footage showed Tagovailoa mostly remaining stoic upon learning the massive news. Even if he wasn't shocked by the decision, the circumstances were still unusual.
"I think I had a feeling that I could potentially go in, but it was short of surreal that it was in that moment that my number got called to go into the game," Tagovailoa said in an interview for the documentary. Meanwhile, the video showed Hurts shaking his head with his arms folded. Even when talking to ESPN's crew, the Philadelphia Eagles star was at a loss for words.
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