Tua Tagovailoa is one of the primary reasons for the presence of spread offense in college football. In fact, Tua is single-handedly responsible for extending the reign of the Alabama dynasty by gifting Saban with the tools for a passing offense. Unfortunately, Tua has not panned out great in the NFL, but he still has time. Here, we will reminisce on Tua Tagovailoa’s college career: one of the most electric in the history of college football.
Recruiting and Early Years
As a recruit from Hawaii, the top players had a direct pipeline to Oregon, where Mario Cristobal was the coach at the time. Tua was clearly different, as he and Jordan Ta’amu chose to test the waters of the SEC. Tagovailoa was a five-star talent, but that mainly revolved around the accuracy of his arm rather than the power. During Tua’s freshman year at Alabama, he served as the backup to Jalen Hurts, an outstanding dual-threat quarterback.
Although Hurts is now a starting quarterback in the NFL, he struggled passing the ball during his sophomore year in 2017. Many Alabama fans called for Tua to get more playing time, but Saban refused to do so until the championship game. In that game, of course, Tagovailoa led the Tide to an incredible comeback and national championship over the Georgia Bulldogs.
Starting Tenure
It’s safe to say that Tua had the starting job on lock in 2018 and 2019. It helped that he had four first-round wide receivers, but Tagovailoa also showed more and more potential throughout each game. His only losses in college were to Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow, who arguably are both the best college quarterbacks in the past decade and even 21st century.
While Tua had an impressive three years at Alabama, his experience with injuries worried NFL teams. Moreover, he did not often play full games in college, but the Miami Dolphins still chose to take him with the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Was it the wrong choice?
Concluding Thoughts
Obviously, we will get a good idea of Tua’s talent and future potential based on his performances this coming year. He will have some good weapons again, namely Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, which will make his stats stand out; especially in the passing yards and touchdowns columns. Nonetheless, Tua is responsible for guiding the Dolphins to compete for an AFC East division title, and that means he must improve his game.