College Football: Tua Tagovailoa: From Nobody to Quarterback Wish Dream

The Alabama Crimson Tide are currently rushing from victory to victory in college football. The undefeated team is the top favourite for another national championship. The main reason for this is quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whom hardly anyone knew a year ago, but whom everyone should now know.

As so often since the introduction of the College Football Playoff, the Alabama Crimson Tide was in the National Championship Game in early 2018. Previously, they had successfully taken revenge on the Clemson Tigers in the semi-final, who had defeated them in the final a year earlier – in a shocking way in the final seconds.

2018 ‘Bama then competed against SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs after they won the Regular Season match against the Tide and thus prevented a conference title for Nick Saban’s team. And the matchup on January 8th at the Georgia Dome was also very much to the taste of the ‘Dawgs’: At the break it was 13:0 and Alabama’s offense around the 2016 All-American-Freshman-QB Jalen Hurts didn’t come into step.

Do what, then? There was only one – radical – solution for the probably best head coach in college football: He took his quarterback out in the halftime of the final and brought the inexperienced and largely unknown Freshman Tua Tagovailoa from Hawaii to the break. He had seen only sporadically and in blowouts in the previous season. Accordingly, all observers were perplexed at the Mercdes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

What was Saban thinking with this measure?

Tagovailoa, however, was by no means impressed. On the contrary! The youngster excelled and ultimately led his team sensationally to victory in the overtime – in style with a 41-yard touchdown pass into the end zone to fellow Freshman Devonta Smith.

A star was born. A star no one had on the note. Except of course in his native Hawaii, where Tua had been on his way to football since his earliest childhood. His grandfather, Seu Tagovailoa, was an ardent cowboy fan and passed this love of the game on to the whole family. When he died unexpectedly in 2014 and Tua questioned his connection to football, he finally decided with his father, Galu, that the best way to honour his grandfather’s life would be to continue playing football and make a career out of it.

A career that Seu had, so to speak, initiated. In 2010, together with his sons, Galu and Tuli, he founded the Ewa Beach Sabers, who then competed in the Big Boy League on Oahu. In contrast to the usual pop warner leagues on the mainland, there were no weight restrictions for the children and teenagers here, which led to Tua, who was already very young in this league – and thus younger than everyone else – being prepared for his later time in the tough Southeastern Conference.

There, too, the large colleges have a mass of players who are physically bigger and faster than the competition. Tua was above all smaller and weaker than the others. But his arm was already sensational at that time: Already at the age of eight he threw balls over 30 yards – normal in the age group were about 10 yards.

Later, at Saint Louis High School, which was also attended by Marcus Mariota, later Heisman winner and quarterback of the Tennessee Titans, he joined the team as a 13-year-old. So Tua was younger than the others, too, but gained respect directly with a 70-yard pass in training – right into the arms of the receiver. That’s when everyone knew.

That goes for everyone in college football now, too. Tagovailoa, with his precision, his tranquility in the pocket and his amazing sophistication as a passer, is not only a hot contender for the Heisman Trophy for the best player in the country, he is also the nightmare of every defense – and the dream of many NFL teams already looking towards Draft 2020.

A linebacker coach from another SEC program recently described Tagovailoa to The Athletic: “He plays with great maturity. He’s quiet, just really cool. He has a unique self-confidence. He won’t panic. He throws super-precise. He runs better than you might think and has great attention. He plays like someone who’s been a starter for three years.”

But that’s not all: “He has totally changed this offense. Alabama used to beat you 10:6 or 13:6. Now they score against everyone. They will be hard to beat, especially with the way this boy plays.”

The best example of these words of praise was certainly the showdown with Alabama’s archrival LSU. In Death Valley ‘Bama won 29:0 and Tagovailoa convinced with force. He threw his first interception – in the ninth game of the season (!) – but otherwise threw for two touchdowns and once ran himself into the final zone.

Otherwise, Alabama’s schedule reads like a joke this year: 51:14, 57:7, 62:7, 45:23, 56:14, 65:31, 39:10, 58:21, 29:0, 24:0, 50:17. Absurd results that reflect Tagovailoa’s influence in their offensive explosion. Not infrequently Alabama’s young star quarterback was taken out early in the final quarter because the game had long since been decided.

Tagovailoa has earned the highest respect in such a short time. Even though he’s always been like that. In his senior season for Saint Louis, his team won a game against Punahou with 20 points difference. A success that led the team’s coach, Cal Lee, to give his players the following Saturday morning off.

A measure that Tua was only partially enthusiastic about. He got on the Offense-Unit bus and declared before departure that she would still train on Saturday – under his leadership!

Page 1: Family man Tua Tagovailoa as Heisman favourite

Page 2: Family move and coach in spirit