Years from now this story will seem improbable.

“It’s going to be crazy,” Alabama running back Josh Jacobs said.

No one would believe it if not for the fact it unfolded before millions of eyes and will be replayed for time eternal.

The central character is a quarterback — Jalen Hurts — who was benched in a national championship game almost 11 months ago after leading his team, the Crimson Tide, to a 26-2 record as a starter.

In the months that followed, speculation percolated about whether he would stick with Alabama following his demotion on the biggest of stages.

Away from the spotlight, he ultimately decided to stay put, letting his situation play out organically without saying a word.

As Tua Tagovailoa, the teammate who replaced him at quarterback, grabbed the spotlight and authored one brilliant performance after another, Hurts remained in the background.

Then, on Saturday — at the same venue where Hurts lost the grip on the starting job, against the same opponent he realized that bitter fate — he gained the ultimate redemption. Tagovailoa suffered a sprained ankle and Hurts entered a conference championship game in which his team trailed by a touchdown with a shade more than 11 minutes left in regulation. Hurts then threw a touchdown pass to tie the score and raced to the end zone on a 15-yard run to seize the victory as the final 60 seconds approached. In the hours that followed Alabama’s 35-28 win over Georgia, Hurts was hailed as a hero.

“I've probably never been more proud of a player,” his coach, Nick Saban, said afterwards.

Then the 20-year-old junior who had transformed from star player to backup to unlikely savior tried to put this wild tale in context.

“It kind of feels like I'm breaking my silence,” Hurts said.

He did so in the most dramatic way possible, bringing a tale of woe full circle and in the process creating the kind of happy ending that would be embraced as much in Tinseltown as T-Town.

With precise passes and daring scrambles, Hurts engineered a comeback of the ages. The Bulldogs had pushed Alabama to the brink of defeat, reducing Tagovailoa — the Heisman Trophy hopeful — to mere mortal. A toxic combination of his own injured joints, a stiff Bulldogs’ defense and the unreliable hands of his receivers was the Hawaiian southpaw’s kryptonite. He completed only 40 percent of his pass attempts and threw as many interceptions in the first three quarters as he did in the first 12 games combined.

When Tagovailoa hobbled off with a sprained ankle early in the fourth quarter, Hurts entered the game with that same unflappable demeanor that he has flashed since his days as a freshman. He promptly completed a 13-yard pass to Irv Smith Jr. Then he converted six more throws en route to spearheading a pair of scoring drives that won Alabama its 27th SEC championship.

“It was his moment,” center Ross Pierschbacher crowed. “No big moment is too big for Jalen.”

Pierschbacher had seen Hurts lead a 21-point comeback against Ole Miss and prevail in a defensive struggle at LSU’s Death Valley back in 2016, when the quarterback was still a fresh face. He was also there for Hurts’ clutch performance in a taut victory over Mississippi State last season, when the Bulldogs had designs on an upset.

“Jalen Hurts is a winner,” offensive coordinator Mike Locksley said.

That reputation never disintegrated even as Hurts went through the trials of an offseason that tested his will and loyalty.

Hurts seemed chafed when he last met with the media in August, venting about the lack of communication with the coaches.

That led outsiders to wonder if Hurts would transfer, taking advantage of a new rule that would allow him to play in four games this season and still maintain a year of eligibility.

“We knew he was going to stay the whole time,” Jacobs said. “And this is what he stayed for. From the day he didn’t start, he said there’d be a time when he had to make a play.

That moment arrived Saturday in the cauldron of the SEC championship with Alabama’s perfect season endangered.

Hurts came in, and within a span of ten minutes rewrote his narrative with the Crimson Tide. As Jacobs said, it will make for a great story one day. Then again, it already is.

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin