Hurts and QB coach Johnson’s shared roots go back to high school football in Texas

Glendale, Ariz. -- The sport of football can at times seem like a very small world, with players and coaches across leagues and levels interconnected through pasts woven in high school, college and the pros.

By the time players reach the highest levels of the sport, the collage of past relationships can add to the intrigue and shed light on the journeys of both players and coaches alike.

This year’s Super Bowl is no exception. Current CFL Most Outstanding Player Zach Collaros had Philadelphia’s Jason Kelce as his centre, and his brother, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce, as his pass-catching tight end while they were all at the University of Cincinnati.

This Super Bowl week I stumbled upon another.

First, some background.

In the spring of 2012, TSN travelled to Baytown, Texas, to produce a feature on the relationship between then-Calgary Stampeders quarterback Drew Tate and his stepfather, the legendary Texas high school coach Dick Olin.

Tate’s mother had married Olin while Tate was just a boy. Tate took to football through their relationship, entering the Texas high school record book while playing for his stepfather at Baytown before moving on to star at the University of Iowa.

That Baytown team quarterbacked by Tate (who this week returned to the CFL as receivers coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders) and coached by Olin has two significant connections to the current Philadelphia Eagles team, which is where this gets kind of fun.

Olin’s defensive co-ordinator at Baytown was a man named Averion Hurts. Hurts had two sons, Averion Jr, and Jalen who, at roughly ages four and nine, served as the team’s ball boys. At practices they would mimic the movements of the quarterbacks as they went through their paces, recalls Olin.

Even back then, Olin recalls noticing something different about the demeanour of the youngest Hurts.

“He just has that look,” Olin said. “Everything he is today is what he’s always been.”

The Baytown connection to the Eagles runs even deeper.

When Tate was entering his senior year, he learned there would be competition for his starting role from a junior transfer named Brian Johnson. When Johnson couldn’t beat out Tate, he moved to receiver and served as the team’s backup quarterback, eventually taking the starting job when Tate left for college the next season.

It was the first time Johnson and Jalen Hurts would cross paths, reconnecting nearly two decades later when Johnson was hired as quarterback coach by Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who had no idea about his past connection to Jalen Hurts and his father from Baytown days.

“I don’t think anybody knew that until I told them,” said Johnson. “I called Jalen as soon as I got the job because he had no idea I was even interviewing for the job. And I don’t think Nick [Sirianni] or [GM Howie Roseman] knew that … it was a really, really big coincidence, but also a bonus as well.

“I followed Jalen’s high school career really, really close, so to see him have the success he’s had has been great to see.”

After Baytown, Johnson has played quarterback at Utah, earning a short stint with the Green Bay Packers before returning to the university as its 22-year-old quarterback coach, adding offensive co-ordinator to his title two years later at the tender age of 24. He held three other college titles, including offensive co-ordinator at the University of Florida, before the Eagles handed him his first NFL job two years ago.

The fast track is nothing new for Johnson, who skipped Grade 2 as a youngster, played as a college freshman at age 17, and couldn’t rent a car when he was recruiting for Utah because he hadn’t turned 25 yet.

“He was always ahead,” said Olin, who had strongly encouraged Johnson to give up his playing aspirations after college and go straight into coaching.

“Coach Olin was actually the one who suggested it,” Johnson said. “I learned so much from him, and he’s a big reason why I went to Utah and went into coaching. A lot of people go into coaching because they’ve had great coaches in their lives. That’s no different from me.”

From those roots in Baytown two decades ago, Jalen Hurts and Johnson have bright futures ahead of them, respectively.

Hurts, 24, is the seventh-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, his ascension to the elite ranks of NFL quarterbacks having come under the tutelage of Johnson, 35, who has suddenly become the NFL’s hottest candidate to be an offensive co-ordinator next season.

Johnson also been identified by NFL insiders as someone who is on the fast track to becoming an NFL head coach.

Two key figures for Philadelphia whose paths crossed long ago on a high school field in Texas. The seeds planted there have come to fruition for the Eagles and their hopes for a Super Bowl win on Sunday.