Alabama coach Nick Saban talks about the quarterback competition and Tua Tagovailoa's thumb injury. Duane Rankin/Montgomery Advertiser
Nick Saban isn’t even powerful enough to stop his quarterback from talking across the ocean.
Tua Tagovailoa confirmed that he considered transferring before the national championship game Alabama won after he replaced Jalen Hurts at halftime.
Tagovailoa threw three touchdowns int he second half, including the game-winner in overtime to beat Georgia.
Even throughout my football season, I wasn't the starter," Tagovailoa told the crowd of seventh- and eighth-graders Thursday in his homeland of Hawaii, as reported by Hawaii News Now. "I wanted to leave the school. So I told myself if I didn't play in the last game, which was the national championship game, I would transfer out.
"I called my dad and asked him if my offer to the University of Southern California was still available. I wanted to leave. I told my dad I wanted to go to a school where I thought it'd be easier for me and wouldn't challenge me so much...
“If I gave in, I don't think I would have seen the end blessing of where I am now."
This is the other half of the college football story of the year headlined by Hurts and Tagovailoa.
Neither one was made available to the media during spring practice, but Hurts’ dad, Averion Hurts, said last month in a Bleacher Report story that if his son loses the starting job to Tagovailoa that, “he’d be the biggest free agent in college football history.”
A junior, Hurts is 26-2 as a starter as he threw for 2,081 yards, 17 touchdowns to one interception and ran for 855 yards and eight touchdowns last season.
Tagovailoa injured his throwing hand in spring ball, and Hurts ended up starting for the first-team offense in the A-Day game.
Both are expected to compete in August camp for the starting job. Alabama opens the 2018 season Sept. 1 against Louisville in Orlando.
“My mentality doesn’t (change),” said Tagovailoa in an interview with Hawaii News Now when asked about being a favorite to win the starting job. “I just got to keep working. I think once it gets to me, that’s when I’m going to start to go downhill. I think I’ve just got to keep doing what I’ve done thus far."
Tagovailoa completed 49 of 77 for 636 yards, 11 touchdowns and two interceptions in nine games as a true freshman last season.
“Keep working,” Tagovailoa continued. “You’ve just got to compete no matter what, and I think competing against myself, trying to get myself better every day is the best way. You’ve got guys like Jalen and Mac Jones, you had an opportunity to see them in the spring game. Being able to compete against those guys throughout the fall I think is going to be really good for the Alabama fans to see.”
Everything seems well with Tagovailoa at Alabama now. He’s rehabbing the injured finger in Hawaii and is looking forward to the QB battle in preseason camp.
