Video: Tua Tagovailoa Ultimate Highlights
Alabama sophomore may be frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy.
He left high school with more passing yards (8,158) than any quarterback in Hawaii history — even Marcus Mariota.
He won a state title his senior season at
St. Louis (Honolulu). The summer before he took home MVP honors of the Elite 11 quarterback competition and The Opening 7-on-7 Tournament, both national competitions at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.
Still, few could have predicted what
Tua Tagovailoa is doing at Alabama.
Nine months after coming off the bench to rescue the Crimson Tide in a national title game win over Georgia, the 6-foot-1, 218-pound left-handed sophomore quarterback is now the unquestioned leader in the race for the 2018 Heisman Trophy.
Tua Tagovailoa almost displaying the Heisman Trophy pose while at St. Louis (Honolulu).
File photo by Darryl Oumi
In four games, he's been nearly perfect, completing 58-of-80 passes for 1,033 yards and 12 touchdowns against no interceptions for the nation's unanimous No. 1-ranked team.
It's not only been the way he's performed, but his demeanor, confidence and poise. It's made him a natural leader, not easy on such a star-studded team.
He showed those same traits during his five-day stint in 2016 at The Opening, which featured more than 160 of the nation's top recruits from the Class of 2017. The awards he won there might have been a precursor of what he brings home as college football's top player.
#HSFB FLASHBACK: Tagovailoa at the 2016 Opening"More than winning trophies or MVPs, the most important thing I accomplished here was building bonds with my teammates, my future teammates and fellow quarterbacks that will last a lifetime," he told MaxPreps then.
The way he's playing now, he better prepare for college football's ultimate prize.
