Across their three seasons together at Alabama football, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts forged a friendship amid a competition for the Crimson Tide’s highly coveted starting quarterback position.

Years after both players left Tuscaloosa, that bond still stands out to Nick Saban.

As Tagovailoa’s Miami Dolphins and Hurts’ Philadelphia Eagles prepare to meet this week on "Sunday Night Football" in a matchup of two of the NFL’s best teams of the 2023 season, Saban recalled Wednesday the “special” connection that developed between the two while they played for him.

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“I never had two players that were really, really good players at the same position who actually supported each other the way those two guys supported each other when they were here,” Saban said on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference. “I think that comes from mutual respect and both guys being great team guys and putting the team before their own personal feelings.”

It would have been easy, perhaps even understandable, for Tagovailoa and Hurts to resent each other, particularly given the way their college careers unfolded.

The two were the top-ranked dual-threat quarterbacks in their respective recruiting classes, Hurts in 2016 and Tagovaolia in 2017, and arrived at Alabama with the hope of college stardom. Hurts started as a true freshman and led the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff championship game that season. Even when Tagovailoa came aboard in 2017, Hurts remained the starter, helping guide Alabama to yet another title game.

Once there, though, Hurts struggled in the first half and was replaced at halftime by Tagovailoa with Georgia holding a 13-0 lead. Behind the freshman from Hawaii, the Crimson Tide rallied for a thrilling 26-23 overtime victory that gave Saban his fifth national championship at the school.

Tagovailoa remained the starter for much of the 2018 season before he was subbed out for Hurts in the SEC championship game, again against Georgia. With a pair of touchdowns in the final six minutes of the game, Hurts led Alabama to another come-from-behind win over the Bulldogs, this time by a 35-28 margin.

“The psychological support that they gave each other in every circumstance is something that I think is really, really special and I’m sure they have the same feeling about each other,” Saban said Wednesday. “I know they’re both great competitors, so they’re going to go do what they have to do for their team. But I do think there’ll be a mutual respect by both guys.”

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Hurts transferred after the 2018 season and ended up at Oklahoma, where he finished second for the Heisman Trophy in 2019, his lone season with the Sooners.

Both Tagovailoa and Hurts were selected in the 2020 NFL Draft, with the former going to Miami with the No. 5 overall pick and the latter landing in Philadelphia with the No. 53 selection. Both players made the Pro Bowl last season while guiding their respective teams to the playoffs, with Hurts finishing as the runner-up for the AP NFL Most Valuable Player Award.

This season, Tagovailoa leads all NFL quarterbacks in passing yards (1,876), touchdown passes (14) and passer rating (114.1).

Hurts’ Eagles and Tagovailoa’s Dolphins, both with 5-1 records, will play Sunday at 7:20 p.m. CT at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, with the game taking place on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast. There are a combined 10 Alabama players between the two active rosters.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jalen Hurts vs Tua Tagovailoa on SNF: Nick Saban praises 'special bond'