MIRAMAR BEACH — Tua Tagovailoa might not be shouldering the burden of having to win the starting job like he did a year ago, but Alabama’s rising junior quarterback still has a bit of pressure coming from on high.
When asked about his quarterback situation this offseason, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said he wants his reigning Heisman Trophy runner-up to approach this offseason with a big chip on his shoulder.
“I think Tua has to challenge himself a little bit to get back to … I think being hurt was an issue for him at the end of the season and I think that he has to challenge himself to get back into great shape and overcome some of the things that happened toward the end of the year,” Saban said Tuesday during a brief press conference on the first day of SEC Spring Meetings inside the Sandestin Beach Hilton. “I think he should take the perception that he has a lot to prove relative to how we ended the season. I think our whole team fits into that category.”
While Tagovailoa certainly impressed with his play as a first-time starter last season, during which he set multiple single-season program passing marks with 3,966 passing yards, 43 passing touchdowns and 48 total scores in 2018, the Hawaiian southpaw also admittedly struggled down the stretch against more elite level defenses.
Against Georgia in the SEC Championship game, an injured Tagovailoa was vastly inconsistent completing 10-of-25 passes for 164 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions before backup Jalen Hurts entered and led a four-quarter comeback.
A month later in the national championship game against Clemson, Tagovailoa appeared out of sync all night while completing 22-of-34 passes for 295 yards with two touchdowns and two costly interceptions, including one that the Tigers returned for a touchdown for the first score of the game.
“Well, it’s kind of hard because, after a game like that, I mean everyone has their heads down. I mean, you as a leader, you just came off a loss, so I think it’s hard in a situation like that because you don’t have anything to look forward to after a game like that because that’s your last game,” Tagovailoa told ESPN this weekend at the Steve Clarkson Quarterback Retreat in Los Angeles.. “I think the biggest thing for us is finding leadership on our team. We’re, I think, still trying to find that and whatnot. But as far as what we’re trying to do to regroup and rebuild as a team, we’re not trying to worry about what happened last year. We’re just trying to see what we can do to better ourselves and see what we can to do to become successful this year.”
Saban also appeared to indicate his intention to give several of Alabama’s younger, less-experienced quarterbacks — among them sophomore backup Mac Jones and true freshmen Taulia Tagovailoa and Paul Tyson — plenty of opportunities both during preseason practice in August and at some point early next season in order to possibly further speed up their development in case they’re needed.
“The other quarterbacks that obviously are developing and have done some good things, and obviously have some things that they need to continue to work on,” Saban said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get them some positive improvement over the summer and in fall camp, and then we’ll have an opportunity to get them some kind of experience level early in the season that might benefit them if they need it down the road.”
