QB Jalen Hurts spurns Miami- will transfer to Oklahoma

The quarterback transfer carousel continued to spin on Wednesday afternoon and, you get the feeling that the Miami Hurricanes knew they were out of the sweepstakes for Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts.

That’s becasue Hurts, a graduate transfer, made it official that he will be leaving Tuscaloosa for the Oklahoma Sooners and the Big XII to play in 2019:

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Alabama Forever – Link In Bio .

A post shared by Jalen Hurts (@thefuture_____2) on Jan 16, 2019 at 10:23am PST

As we wrote earlier in the week, Oklahoma has availability at the signal-caller position because Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray declared early for the NFL Draft by the Monday deadline.

Hurts had only been flirting with OU, but also the University of Maryland, where Alabama’s offensive coordinator Mike Locksley went and took the head coaching job. And, he was also being courted by Miami and new coach Manny Diaz.

Diaz hired Alabama’s quarterback coach Dan Enos, as his offensive coordinator last week. Hurts met with Diaz and Enos extensively on Sunday in Coral Gables. However, he obviously opted to go play for Lincoln Riley in an Oklahoma system that has produced the last two Heisman Trophy winners.

That includes 2017 Award winner and number one overall pick of the Cleveland Browns Baker Mayfield.

As we wrote earlier on Wednesday, Miami was proactive in the transfer game and is taking QB Tate Martell from Ohio State. Martell is leaving after having barely played his two years in Columbus. He is a former five-star High School star and record-breaking quarterback from famed Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. However, Martell will have to sit out the 2019 season, as he unlike Hurts, has not graduated. Therefore, he will have to abide by the NCAA transfer rules and have two years of eligibility still remaining.

Hurts is the former starting quarterback for 2016-17 at Alabama, where he led the tie to a national championship runner-up finish in 2016. However, he was then famously benched in the second half of the 2017 National Championship game with Georgia. Freshman Tua Tagovailoa took over and led Alabama to the overtime win.

Tide coach Nick Saban chose to go with Tagovailoak as his 2018 starter in September and Hurts only played sparingly throughout the regular season. He did come in to play in the second half of the SEC Title Game rematch with Georgia and led the Tide to the victory and the College Football Playoff.

However, once healthy a month later, Tagovailoa took back over for Alabama’s Orange Bowl win over Murray and Oklahoma, but then Clemson defeated Bama for the National Championship the next week.

It was obvious at the end of the season that Hurts was going to not only graduate, but look to try to play somewhere else in 2019.

And, that somewhere else is with the Oklahoma Sooners, not the Miami Hurricanes.