Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban is known for winning college football championships. Fans can also have fun adding up the number of his players who now wear Super Bowl rings. The total currently sits at thirteen. That includes Cyrus Jones who’s won two Super Bowls and Dont’a Hightower with three. Both of them played for the Patriots during their heyday. The photo at the top of this article is the ring from 2014’s title game, and Hightower’s first with the Patriots. Saban's total could jump by seven this Sunday, but only if things go well for the Philadelphia Eagles. Our story begins with the coach’s last championship win at Alabama and how one player fit in.
One final snap of the football may not sound like much unless you're Landon Dickerson during Nick Saban's final championship win at Alabama. The tide center was sidelined with a knee injury. That is, until the end of the game.
“Landon's an all American Center in college. He's a hell of a player,” said former Alabama quarterback Jalen hertz, who now leads the Philadelphia Eagles. He, Dickerson and five more Tide former players will try to win this Sunday Super Bowl against the powerhouse Kansas City Chiefs. Hertz and Dickerson didn't play at the same time in Tuscaloosa, but they do now.
“I always, you know, talk about how I missed Landon,” Hurts observed after the Eagle defeated the Washington Commanders to go to the Super Bowl. “When everybody asks me because you got the Alabama crossover, and I missed him about a year. And so we got, we got a chance to do what we could have done.”
Another current Eagles player who used to wear crimson and white as wide receiver, DeVonta Smith. Alabama fans remember it. It was the 2018, national championship against Georgia. Hertz was the starting quarterback until he was pulled in the second half in favor of freshman Tua Tagovailoa.
“Tua looks back, loads up, looks long, throws, end zone. Touchdown, Alabama,” exclaimed Eli Gold during his broadcast during the title game in Atlanta. “DeVonta Smith, touchdown. Alabama. Touchdown Alabama, and the Crimson Tide has once again ascended to the top of the college football mountain!”
Tua got to make the pass to DeVonta Smith that fans remember as the “Tua bomb.”
“If we're going to have the best chance to win this game, that we may need to do it in a different way,” said head Coach Nick Saban. That change was to put tua in and take Jalen Hurts out.
“I think he understood that, sure he didn't. Any competitor would not accept that willingly. But I mean, as a team player, he was very supportive of Tua in the second half,” Saban said.
Now, fast forward 11 months to the same Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta and the same Georgia Bulldogs that Alabama was playing for the Southeastern Conference Championship in December of 2018.
So after Tua Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts during the title game back in January of 2018. Hurts replaced Tua in December of that same year during the SEC championship. It was about 10 minutes to go and Alabama trailing the Bulldogs.
Hurts led the Tide to victory.
“I've probably never been more proud of a player than Jalen,” observed Nick Saban following the SEC title win. “You know, it's unprecedented to have a guy that won as many games as he won, I think, 26 or something, over a two year period start as a freshman, only lose a couple games this whole time that he was a starter, and then all of a sudden, he's not the quarterback. And how do you manage that?”
“When you're in a game, you take a play at a time and you just want to execute the fundamentals of the play,” said Hurts last week in Philadelphia. Now, as quarterback with the Eagles, and the Super Bowl just days away, it may not take much for Alabama fans to listen to hertz and get the impression he's channeling Nick Saban during his heyday in Tuscaloosa.
“I've told you guys, it's not a matter that we can just a matter of if we do, and it all comes down how we execute, comes down to our approach, and everyone been on the same page and playing with good rhythm and ultimately finding a way to win,” Hurts said.
Now, Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson will be joined by former tied tight end Cameron Latu, cornerback Eli Ricks, guard Tyler Steen and tackle Byron young when the Eagles face the Chiefs during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
