A Link Forged Before the Lights Got Bright

When Jalen Hurts jogs onto an NFL field today—cool, composed, scanning defenses like a chess master—it’s easy to forget that the calm, efficient quarterback wearing number 1 once carried a heavy dose of doubt. Long before he became the face of Philadelphia’s resurgence, Hurts was an ambitious college kid trying to earn trust.
And the first coach who really saw what he could be wasn’t wearing midnight green.
He was wearing crimson.

That coach was Brian Daboll, now the fiery, stocky head coach of the New York Giants—the man who, years before the NFC East rivalry, helped shape Hurts’s understanding of leadership, adversity, and offensive discipline.

Football can be cruelly ironic. The same coach now tasked with stopping Hurts on Sundays is also one of the architects who taught him how to win them.

Tuscaloosa, 2018: A Quiet Classroom in Quarterback Evolution

When Alabama hired Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator in 2017, the program already had a quarterback who could run, throw, and command a huddle with charisma—Jalen Hurts.
Hurts had led the Tide to a national-title game as a true freshman. He had poise, confidence, and a record of 26-2 as a starter. Yet beneath the trophies lurked whispers that he was too one-dimensional, that Alabama’s offense didn’t scare defenses vertically.

Daboll, fresh off 17 years in the NFL—including stints under Bill Belichick—arrived in Tuscaloosa determined to expand the playbook and, more importantly, Hurts’s mind.

“He brought a pro system into a college locker room,” recalled former Tide receiver Calvin Ridley. “It was about reads, protections, timing—all the things Jalen would later use on Sundays.”

Daboll’s approach was surgical. He built the offense around concepts Hurts had never run: layered route trees, pre-snap motion, sight adjustments. He wanted Hurts to see football, not just play it.

At first, it was overwhelming. Hurts had to recalibrate his habits—the quick tuck-and-run, the instinct to freelance. Daboll kept drilling the same mantra: trust the structure, then use your gifts.

Tough Lessons, Lasting Impressions

Their relationship wasn’t always easy. Daboll was blunt, demanding, and famously loud. Hurts was stoic, absorbing criticism with that now-familiar unblinking stare.

“Coach Daboll would light into him,” said former Alabama lineman Jonah Williams. “But Jalen never blinked. He’d nod, go back to work. I think Daboll respected that.”

That respect blossomed into mentorship. After practices, Daboll often kept Hurts behind to walk through reads on the whiteboard—sometimes until the janitorial crew flicked the hallway lights.
He’d quiz Hurts on coverage rotations, forcing him to anticipate instead of react. The lessons transcended diagrams.

“He taught me how to process,” Hurts later told ESPN. “Not just what the play is, but why it works. That’s when the game slowed down.”

In that single season together, Hurts’s completion percentage jumped from 62 to 66 percent. His turnovers dropped. But the biggest shift came in his mental approach—the NFL-style discipline Daboll demanded.

When the Spotlight Shifted

Then came the moment that tested everything they’d built.
January 2018. National Championship. Alabama trails Georgia at halftime. Daboll makes the hardest call of his coaching life: he benches Hurts for true freshman Tua Tagovailoa.

It’s a decision that could have shattered a young quarterback’s confidence. Instead, Hurts showed grace few could have mustered. He cheered. He encouraged. He hugged Tua after the comeback win.

What the world saw as humility was also the embodiment of something Daboll had instilled all season—control what you can control; lead, even when you’re not on the field.

“That’s the night the league learned who Jalen really was,” Daboll said years later. “Talent’s easy to find. Maturity like that? Rare.”

The two hugged in the locker room afterward. Daboll told him, “Your story’s not done. Use this.”
Hurts nodded quietly. He already knew.

From Tuscaloosa to Norman: Applying the Blueprint

When Hurts transferred to Oklahoma a year later, the fingerprints of Daboll’s tutelage were obvious.
Under Lincoln Riley, he blossomed into a Heisman finalist—but his foundation was forged in the pro concepts and mental toughness that Daboll demanded.

NFL scouts noticed. They saw not just an athlete but a technician—someone who could handle protection calls, read full-field progressions, and maintain composure under pressure.

The book on Hurts had flipped: once “too raw,” he was now “coachable and cerebral.”

That transformation didn’t happen overnight. It started in those long, late-night sessions with a coach who refused to let him settle for “good enough.”

Crossing Paths Again—This Time as Rivals

Fast-forward to the NFC East, 2025.
Brian Daboll is the head coach of the New York Giants, a division rival tasked with stopping Hurts twice a year. The irony isn’t lost on either man.

When reporters asked Hurts last season about facing his former mentor, he smiled slightly.

“Coach Daboll helped me grow into who I am,” Hurts said. “But between those lines, there’s no sentiment. He wants to win. So do I.”

Daboll echoed the respect.

“I’m proud of the kid,” he said. “He’s earned everything. But on game day? He’s the enemy.”

Their matchups carry subtext deeper than statistics—a teacher watching his student execute the very philosophies he once taught, now turned against him.

Shared DNA: The Mental Game

What unites them still is the mental discipline that defines both their brands of football.
Hurts’s poise in two-minute drills mirrors Daboll’s methodical offensive sequencing. His pocket composure under fire reflects the same coaching points Daboll drilled at Alabama: eyes up, feet calm, think fast, act slow.

Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, who’s worked closely with Hurts in Philadelphia, often references that lineage.

“When we talk about processing speed, Jalen’s already at a different level,” Johnson said. “That comes from his early exposure to pro systems. That comes from Daboll.”

Even in rivalry, there’s legacy. Every time Hurts slides protection or manipulates a safety with his eyes, he’s applying habits first etched into him by the man on the opposite sideline.

What Daboll Learned, Too

Mentorship is never one-sided. Daboll’s experience with Hurts altered his own coaching philosophy.
He realized not every quarterback thrives under relentless volume. Some, like Hurts, respond better to quiet conviction.

“Jalen taught me patience,” Daboll admitted during a Giants press conference last year. “Sometimes you push too hard, you forget these are people. He handled criticism better than anyone I’ve coached. That made me re-evaluate how I reach players.”

That evolution shaped the coach who later unlocked Josh Allen in Buffalo and then revived Daniel Jones’s career in New York. The bridge between those success stories traces straight back to his time with Hurts.