Jalen Hurts absolutely decked Nick Saban, but the coach was cool about it

It’s an occupational hazard.

Late in Alabama’s Sugar Bowl semifinal win against Clemson on Monday, Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts destroyed his head coach, Nick Saban.

Hurts came in hot to the Alabama sideline at the end of a play. Hurts is not a small man, at a listed 6’2 and 218 pounds. Put a bunch of hard football pads around his muscular frame, and have him run somewhere at full speed, and you’ve got quite a lot of force packed into one football player’s body. Hurts made an effort to stop short of his coach, but there’s only so much a player can do in tight quarters.

So if you’re someone who has longed for years to see this image of Saban, wait no more. You’ve gotten the visual you’ve been holding out to see:

That’s the face of a man who’s going through some stuff.

Saban was cool about it after the fact. ESPN’s Laura Rutledge asked him about the hit after the game, and a smiling Saban responded, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” I.e., they don’t make small football players who are not huge and powerful.

Saban and Hurts stood together on a podium at midfield to take the Sugar Bowl’s trophy afterward. They’ll try to win a national title together in a week.