TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Sunday nights this fall, Tua Tagovailoa can be at his desk, iPad in entrance of him, notepad to his proper, able to dive in. The bruises and stiffness from Saturday have been labored by within the coaching room and a “stretch-and-stride” exercise, and again residence after dinner it’s time to train the thoughts.
There in all probability can be a bag of dill pickle-flavored sunflower seeds to maintain him firm, however in any other case that is some high quality alone time dedicated to the subsequent protection the Alabama quarterback will face.
Upon accessing the obtain of the subsequent opponent, Tua’s first aim is solely to get a broad-strokes learn — how the defensive coordinator thinks, what the personnel seems to be like, favored alignments, issues like that. Sunday evening is overview evening, with the grinding over the small print of particular performs and conditions set to start Monday and proceed all through the week.
There can be notes. There at all times are notes. Tua is a be aware taker, at school and in soccer, the act of writing facilitating the importation of knowledge to his mind.
The place of the notepad is noteworthy. Essentially the most outstanding lefty quarterback in soccer is known as a righty — he does every part however throw along with his proper hand. His father, Galu, himself a left-hander, was decided to make his oldest son a southpaw from age four or 5.
“I couldn’t contact the ball with my proper hand,” Tua mentioned. “Solely my left.”
So he’ll take notes along with his proper hand whereas envisioning tossing bombs along with his left. When the man who final 12 months authored probably the most environment friendly passing season within the historical past of FBS watched movie, all he noticed had been touchdowns ready to occur.
“Final 12 months,” he mentioned, “I at all times wished that shot.”
The deep shot. The lengthy ball. The hero play. Sitting in an workplace on the Alabama campus on a quiet July afternoon, Tua’s darkish eyes gleamed speaking about these adrenaline-rush bombs.
They’re the throws which have made Tua a riveting, must-watch expertise. From the beautiful bomb to beat Georgia and win the nationwide championship his freshman 12 months to his 43 landing passes on simply 355 makes an attempt as a sophomore, the Hawaii native has thrived enjoying gunslinger soccer. He’s the present FBS record-holder for highest profession TD share, with 12.5 % of his passes leading to six factors, and his 11.2 yards per try in 2018 had been exceeded by solely the person who beat him out for the Heisman Trophy, Kyler Murray.
And now, considerably antithetically, it might be time for him to strive one thing somewhat completely different.
It might be time for Mr. Massive Play to sometimes settle for throwing the ball away or checking right down to a secular, five-yard acquire. If this season goes to finish the best way he deeply needs, it might be time for Tua Tagovailoa to embrace the occasional in-game defeat within the quest for end-game victory.
Tua and his lavishly gifted set of receivers had been so good in 2018 that they pushed an immovable object, Mount Saban, into a brand new state of mind. Alabama legend-in-residence Nick Saban has received six nationwide championships in largely the identical trend: dominant protection, a game-controlling working recreation and sufficient passing to maintain defenses sincere. In 2018, Alabama grew to become a real passing powerhouse — throwing the ball early and infrequently and infrequently with abandon.
The end result was an onslaught of massive performs. Tua had not less than one completion of 25 yards or longer in all 15 video games final 12 months, and had not less than one longer than 40 yards in 12 of 15 video games. Tua’s means to not simply envision the large play however then make it occur — his contact on deep balls is really outstanding — altered the well-established Saban paradigm.
Merely put, a reasonably conservative coach let his deep-ball freak flag fly. Vertical photographs weren’t solely allowed however inspired.
Take into account: In Alabama’s decade of dominance underneath Saban, the Crimson Tide by no means averaged greater than 9.four yards per move try. In 2018 the group shot as much as 11.1, driving the golden arm and jaunty confidence of its sophomore quarterback.
However because the season progressed, confidence maybe teetered over the road into overconfidence. And when weeks of torrid begins finally gave method to early recreation errors in opposition to Georgia within the Southeastern Convention championship recreation and Clemson within the Faculty Soccer Playoff championship recreation, Tua grew to become a far much less poised quarterback. A cheerful-go-lucky participant began to look wired in opposition to elite defenses that created errors.
Alabama received so many video games so simply, with Tua strafing defenses so routinely, that any alteration in that weekly method grew to become a shock to the QB’s system.
“You begin attempting to pressure performs, attempting to make performs downfield, attempting to make explosive performs,” Saban mentioned, “once they’re not there.”
Errors proliferated. A man who had thrown 4 interceptions in his complete school profession previous to the SEC title recreation threw two in opposition to the Bulldogs, then two extra in opposition to the Tigers plus a fumble. It took a Jalen Hurts bailout off the bench to beat Georgia, and there was no saving Alabama in opposition to Clemson.
“I do know an enormous focus of Tua’s offseason work was to know situationally what the group must be profitable,” mentioned analyst Greg McElroy, himself a former Alabama quarterback underneath Saban. “The factor about Tua, issues went so properly so usually for him, he didn’t usually should bounce again from a nasty throw or a nasty resolution. And when these did occur, he tried to get it again on one play.
“Towards Georgia, early decide, he’s urgent the remainder of the sport. Towards Clemson, early decide, he’s urgent the remainder of the sport. In the event you’re down two touchdowns, you’ll be able to’t throw one move and rating 14 factors. I believe he’s grown loads from it and there’s a newfound focus.”
Tua disputes none of that critique. If something, his inner dialog is way extra crucial than something he hears externally. He solely threw six interceptions final 12 months and misplaced two fumbles, however these few errors caught with him.
Tua described his mindset in 2018 thusly: “If we’re not up by 30 factors already, we’ve received to go. We received to attain as quickly as doable. The second half of final 12 months, it was simply enjoying sound soccer.
“The expertise final 12 months, I really feel that’s large. To have the ability to admit defeat — if you happen to’ve received to throw it away, throw it away. In the event you’ve received to take a sack, shield the ball and take the sack versus attempting to spin away and make a play.”
If Tua does have to spin away in 2019, he ought to not less than be extra able to it than final season. He’s dropped about 15 kilos by enhancing his weight loss program, and between that and the complete therapeutic of some nagging lower-leg accidents his elusiveness and mobility is anticipated to be a lot improved.
That’s all properly and good, however Tua is a particular quarterback due to his arm and his perspective. He desires to make the hero performs and take the large photographs, and his means to execute these daring performs makes him a must-watch QB.
However to be the most effective QB doable, he might have to lose just a few performs to win a recreation. When Tua Tagovailoa is finding out movie and taking notes this season, he should envision the occasional check-down when all he used to see is touchdowns.