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Jalen Hurts beats North Shore to set career in motion
SUPER BOWL LVII: Hurts "Normal kid with different dreams"
Well, a few blocks over is Channelview High – right in the industrial-plex of Houston. The Falcons aren’t a high school football power. In fact, Channelview hasn’t won a playoff game in 30 years.
But in early October of 2014, a star was born.
Channelview had never beaten North Shore… ever. Older brother Averion Hurts Jr. (passing game coordinator at Summer Creek) couldn’t do it prior to Jalen, and it took a 38-yard Hail Mary with no time left to beat the “Beasts of the East” 49-48 in an instant classic. A legacy was cemented and Hurts' future was set in motion.
“He was a heck of a football player. He just made stuff happen. When he threw that Hail Mary to beat us when he was a junior, I’ll never forget it,” Kay said. “He’s done that his whole career, though. People didn’t think he could do it at Alabama… he did. Then he goes to Oklahoma and people thought… maybe other quarterbacks were catching up to him. Then he stars at OU and finishes second in the Heisman Trophy voting. Surely, the league (NFL) will be the great separator? Now, he’s in the Super Bowl.”
That game would put Hurts at the epicenter of the recruiting radar for 2015. Recruiting analysts would have to Mapquest where Channelview High School was to come witness the next big thing in the Bayou City.
“Channelview had always been a program that stuggled for playoff appearances and big wins,” 247Sports Recruiting Analyst Brian Perroni said. “Jalen was just plain special that night. He showed he could lead the big underdogs to a huge win with his arm and legs against North Shore. That win got a lot of eyes on him from a recruiting standpoint.”
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Channelview coach Averion Hurts is a soft-spoken leader, who believes in hard work and being a good teammate. No frills, just old school. Quiet. His words very measured.
Makes sense. That’s where Jalen Hurts gets his ‘head-down”, laser-focused mindset from. It’s also where he gets his “team first” philosophy… see his time at Alabama.
“He’s been through some growing pains during his career, but all of those adversities have made him better as a player and stronger as a man,” Hurts said. “Look, he was just a normal kid growing up. He just had different dreams. Once he figured out what he wanted to do, he worked for it. That’s just always been him, very determined.”
As a freshman at Alabama, Hurts was the SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year – but fell 35-31 in the National Championship Game against Clemson. He would lead the Tide to the 2018 Title Game against Georgia, where he would be pulled for Tua Tagovailoa. Alabama won 26-23. He was the back-up for much of 2018 as Bama would fall to Clemson again in the 2019 Title Game.
Off the Oklahoma went Hurts with his workmanlike attitude and winning persona. He would lead the Sooners to the College Football, eventually losing to LSU in the semis. He finished second to LSU's Joe Burrow for the Heisman Trophy.
Jalen would be drafted by Philadelphia in the second round with the 53rd overall pick. He was named the starter late in the season for coach Doug Pederson, who would be fired at the end of the season.
Hurts would lead the Eagles to the playoffs last season under the direction of coach Nick Sirianni, before falling to Tampa Bay in the Wild Card Round.
This season has been a storybook for the Channelview Falcon, finishing as one of five finalists for the NFL MVP Award.
So, what’s been the difference?
“I just wanted to see what he could do in the same offense for two years,” Averion said. “With the same people. He hasn’t had the same play-caller for two years since he played in high school. When everything from the neck up slows down, everything else speeds up for you as quarterback. If you are having to learn a new system every year, you are not gonna get that natural next step. With this second year, you are able to add stuff to a foundation you have already built. The game seems a lot easier. You know where to go with the ball. You know where the reads are. You are just maturing in the position, basically.”
As the Eastside of Houston roots on one of their own, the Hurts family will head to Glendale, Arizona to the Super Bowl.
“He is really proud of the fact that he has been able to bring us and his grandparents along for the ride,” Averion said. “We have enjoyed the heck out of it.”
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Channelview hasn’t beaten North Shore since that magical night in 2014. The night that Jalen Hurts, became “Jalen Hurts”. His legacy lives on as he continues to represent Houston’s #Eastside in the sport's biggest game of the year.
“The Hail Mary is not a fond memory for me because he beat us,” said North Shore’s Kay. “My fondest memory had to have been at the district track meet that Spring, though. The 4x100-relay was being held up, I was told, by a shot putter. I thought they were joking… a shot putter in a sprint relay? It was Jalen Hurts. He won the meet in the shot and came over and ran the relay.
"From an outsider, you could see he did everything through hard work and class. What a great, respectful young man. His father taught him well.”
Harold Perkins was a star of Cypress Park
THAT DUDE: Cy Park's Perkins one of biggest stories in college football
The LSU true-freshman linebacker has exploded onto the college football scene and is a big reason why the Tigers have exceeded expectations in coach Brian Kelly’s first year. He's Devin White (Tampa Bay Bucs) wrapped in Tyrann Mathieu (New Orleans Saints)... as a freshman.
Now, all he needs is a nickname.
The highly-coveted, national-recruit was the No. 2 linebacker in the country coming out of Cypress Park High School, far from a super-power in the talent-rich Greater-Houston Area.
“I met Harold in the eighth grade… he wasn’t even playing football,” Cy Park head coach Greg Rogers said. “He was a hooper. His junior-high coaches told me if he got on the football field, he’d be special.
“He played his freshman year and quit after the season to play basketball. I remember talking to him in the hall right after basketball ended and asking where he was. ‘That was the plan. I was gonna play with my friends as a freshman then go straight basketball. I’m not coming back,’ he told me.
“I’m never gonna try and talk anyone into playing football or force them, but I told him to think about it for 24 hours and get back to me.”
A day later… still no Harold.
Now, keep in mind, Harold was the quarterback of the freshman team. That’s where the best athlete plays, right?
“For four games, he would fumble the snap… then pick it up and run around for a touchdown, often un-touched. Every time,” Rogers laughed. “Going into the fifth game, I asked him if he did that on purpose. He’d look at me with a smile, ‘Nah Coach, I wouldn’t do that’.
“We knew we had something special when he was in the ninth grade.”
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Rogers got a knock on his door a few weeks after that hallway discussion.
It was Harold.
“He told me he made a big mistake and would like to come back out for football,” Rogers said. “He knew what it took. No special treatment. He had to fill out an application and write an essay. He had to be here in the summer for the time he missed. He did it all.”
That season, he started out on the junior-varsity, before working up to play under the Friday Night Lights. He would be named the District 14-6A Defensive Newcomer of the Year, sound familiar? The next season, he was a first-teamer on offense and defense. The next he was a national recruit and an Under Armour All-American. Now, he's the SEC Defensive Player of the Week and He committed to Texas A&M in early January, before de-committing. He signed with LSU weeks later.
“I had some of my coaching staff over to watch the Alabama game,” he said. “He’d run down Bryce Young and we would look at each other and remember him doing that for us. His first 10 to 15 yards is the fastest I’ve ever seen. Then, I would see Coach Kelly talking to him on the sideline during a mistake he may have made. I remember having those conversations with him.
“He’s a charismatic guy,” Rogers laughed. “Even when he makes a mistake, you just can’t stay mad at him long. He’d always look at me and smile, ‘I got you coach, don’t worry about it’.
“And then he’d go make a play you have never seen before on a football field.”
The transition from the high school game to the college game as a true freshman is a huge leap for some. For everyone honestly, Not for Perkins.
“I’m not surprised and here is why,” Rogers said. “He wants to be the best at whatever he’s doing. When he was the No. 3 linebacker in the country, he wanted to be No. 1. When he was the No. 1 linebacker in the country, he wanted to be the No. 1 player in the country. He’s always wanted to be the best football player on the field and when he connected football and academics, his grades took off. He started making the Honor Roll and kept competing in the classroom.”
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Even now, Rogers will get a Facetime from Perkins.
“He’s either off to study hall or the weight room. He just has that innate drive that others don’t. That’s why he has no ceiling.”
Having a Harold Perkins walk the hallways is a blessing and a curse.
“Kids in the program think that if Harold can get recruited by everyone in the nation, then so should they,” Rogers said. “Well, it doesn’t work like that. He’s the best I’ve coached and the best a lot of opposing coaches have ever seen. He put in the work to be the best, but he’s a freak.”
The college football landscape and NFL scouts are quickly finding that out.