The Next Guy

In this last episode, The Substitute, Smokey reveals to Sawyer that Jacob had been looking for a replacement to take over duties of protecting the island. The remaining candidates are Jack, Hurley, Sayid (most likely not, since he's dead) and either Sun or Jin. Sawyer's up there on the list, but clearly he wants off the island.

Of the people left, Hurley is the most qualified. He's the only one on the list who's actually seen and spoken to Jacob, he's the one the cabin appeared to out of nowhere, a god damn BIRD screamed his name, and his whole life has revolved around the numbers, which were being transmitted from the island until Rousseau swapped out the transmission for her own.

He's a good person. He's never killed anyone. And it's been alluded to a number of times in the past few episodes that he's the new leader of the pack.

As for how Ben got off the island to become a European History teacher, well, we're all assuming that jughead is what sank the island. What if that wasn't the case? What if jughead made the island barely habitable, so everyone left. Then the island changed it's location to some spot under the ocean? That would certainly explain Ben and Ethan's appearances off island.