If Tua Tagovailoa does decide to enter the draft, Taulia Tagovailoa will likely compete with Mac Jones for the starting quarterback spot next season. The Crimson Tide and head coach Nick Saban have also secured a commitment from class of 2020 dual-threat quarterback Bryce Young. Young is ranked as the No. 6 overall player and No. 1 quarterback in his recruiting class. Current Maryland head coach Mike Locksley was the Alabama offensive coordinator during the 2018 season, when Tua Tagovailoa finished second in the Heisman Trophy race.
Suffice it to say, it’s going to be a trial by fire for the former Alabama QB. Has struggled with his decision-making and needs to improve his pre-snap recognition skills to read defenses and see blitzes. Doesn’t decipher information as quickly as you would like, but does see the entire field and understands coverage. Football, for lack of a better term, is a bleepin’ celebration.
He made his return in Week 13 against the Cincinnati Bengals, where he threw for 296 yards and a touchdown during a 19–7 win. In Week 16 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Tagovailoa threw for 94 yards and a touchdown before being benched in favor of Fitzpatrick again in the fourth quarter. In Week 17 against the Buffalo Bills, needing a win for the Dolphins to qualify for the playoffs, Tagoavailoa threw for a career-high 361 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions as Miami lost 56–26.
Seu ruled with absolute authority, with “the Bible and the belt,” as grandson and Navy tackle Adam Amosa-Tagovailoa says. “Our parents would never, ever question him,” says Adam’s brother Myron, a defensive tackle at Notre Dame. Such is life in the spotlight when you are an Alabama quarterback. With Tua’s brother, Taulia Tagovailoa, heading to Alabama next season, Galu and Diane will be driving to Tuscaloosa for a few more years. Galu admitted that Tua’s game-winning throw in the 2018 title game changed the lives of their family. Tagovailoa spent his true freshman season at Alabama in 2019 as a backup to his older brother, Tua Tagovailoa, and Mac Jones.
Football became the secular expression of the family’s identity. In 2010, Seu founded his own league in Ewa Beach so his grandsons could all play together, and so he could watch every snap. He softened a little near the end of his life, letting his son Galu handle the discipline. “He had that old-school mindset. We were all so scared of him and we’d run to our grandfather.”
Those are two pillars of Tagovailoa’s life, part of the way he was raised and the culture he calls his own. That’s part of the reason Tagovailoa became such a likable superstar at Alabama, the likes of which the school hadn’t seen before. He pulled Tua off the practice field and told him to clean out his locker. A witness remembers Tua sitemodel names obediently sprinting toward the locker room and Galu telling the coaches, “Good luck this year without Tua.” These two brothers lived in Vatia, American Samoa, a remote village reachable only by hiking over a mountain. They were members of the influential Afuola family and related to the Tagovailoas, who had a terrible reputation.
