Quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy will be in the spotlight Sunday when they meet for the second time in their football careers. Hurts’ Philadelphia Eagles will host Purdy’s San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship.
Hurts, the third-year pro with the Eagles, is an NFL MVP finalist this season.
Purdy, drafted by the 49ers with the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft, is up for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
A little more than three years ago, though, the pair faced off in a Big 12 Conference game.
What happened when Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy faced each other in college?
Hurts, who started his college career at Alabama, was playing for Oklahoma the last time these two quarterbacks met, while Purdy was at Iowa State.
- They faced each other on Nov. 9, 2019 — the Sooners were ranked No. 9 and coming off their first loss of the season, while the Cyclones were unranked and 5-3 heading into the game.
- Hurts and Oklahoma prevailed 42-41 over Purdy and Iowa State in a game that went down to the final minute.
- Hurts accounted for five touchdowns, with three TD passes and two scoring runs, while Purdy accounted for six touchdowns, five through the air and one on the ground.
- Hurts threw for 273 yards and ran for 68 more — his only blemish was throwing an interception — while Purdy had 282 passing yards and ran for 55 more.
- Hurts got Oklahoma out to a 35-14 lead at halftime, then 42-21 late in the third quarter.
- Purdy helped Iowa State rally, as the Cyclones scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns.
- The last touchdown came with 24 seconds remaining, pulling Iowa State within 42-41.
- The Cyclones went for a two-point conversion and the win, but Purdy was intercepted on the two-point try, sealing an Oklahoma victory.
What Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy remember about that 2019 meeting
Both quarterbacks talked with the media this week about that 2019 matchup, and both had complimentary things to say about the other.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” Hurts said of Purdy, per NFL.com’s Nick Shook. “He’s always been a really good player. He has a lot of moxie, he makes plays and he’s been doing that since college so there’s no surprise to him when he was given this opportunity to see the success he’s having now.”
“It was a great experience to go against Jalen and they had a great team, and he was making plays and I feel like we had to do the same to keep up and stay alive in that game as well, but this is a different situation, different scenario going into Sunday,” Purdy said, according to NFL.com.