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Notre Dame has produced more NFL players than any college football program in the country thanks to the 522 guys who’ve punched their ticket to the big time, but over the past couple of decades, Alabama has made some very big strides while closing in on the top five schools who’ve historically set their alumni up for success.
At the start of the most recent NFL season, the Crimson Tide had helped produce 58 players who had secured a roster spot somewhere in the league. That includes Jalen Hurts, who capped off his time in college at Oklahoma but played his first three seasons in Tuscaloosa.
The Eagles quarterback obviously wishes Super Bowl LVII had panned out differently. While he’ll likely be haunted by his costly fumble (and, to a lesser extent, the Hail Mary attempt that left plenty to be desired), he still put on a pretty impressive show in The Big Game.
Hurts played a role in four of the touchdowns the Eagles posted on Sunday night, as he threw a gorgeous 45-yard pass to A.J. Brown in the second quarter and also punched the ball into the endzone on three separate occasions.
That includes the QB sneak that opened up the scoring in the first quarter, which Michael Casagrande noted was a fairly significant development, as it marked the first time someone who played college ball at Alabama had managed to cross the goal line in the Super Bowl.
That’s the first touchdown scored by a former Alabama football player in a Super Bowl.
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) February 12, 2023
That achievement is accompanied by an asterisk, as it was the first rushing touchdown that was credited to a former member of the Crimson Tide; Bart Starr, Ken Stabler, and Joe Namath had previously recorded passing touchdowns on the NFL’s biggest stage, but none of them took matters into their own hands.