If Tua Tagovailoa isn't your Heisman Trophy favorite right now, give me your ballot
Just because itās obvious doesnāt mean itās not true.
That double-negative is a fitting way to introduce what should be a consensus thought as we bypass the unofficial midway point of the season.
Tua Tagovailoa is your Heisman Trophy favorite right now, unless youāre just being that person. Like, the person who argues that itās Sunday when itās Saturday. Somewhere, that person is drawing up some cumulative numbers suggesting that Tagovailoa doesnāt stack up with Will Grier or Kyler Murray.
Thatās cool. Theyāre wrong, but I suppose itās their right to do that. Theyāre probably right there with the people who didnāt make Babe Ruth get 100 percent of the vote to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Tagovailoa isnāt Ruth yet, though he hasnāt exactly shown signs that heās incapable of doing unprecedented things.
Howās that for a triple negative?
Saturdayās blowout win against Tennessee was a nice little reminder of just what Tagovailoa is capable of. And no, Iām not going to tell you that the Volsā defense is the 85 Bears ā everybody expects Alabama to face the nationās best defense every week or it doesnāt count ā but it was still a unit coached by one of the gameās best defensive minds in Jeremy Pruitt.
By the time Tagovailoaās day was done, it was the middle of the third quarter. Of course, it was after he threw his fourth touchdown pass to get Alabama to the 50-point mark for the sixth time in 8 games. And just in case there was any doubt that Tagovailoa wasnāt doing the heavy lifting, Alabama had fewer than 100 yards rushing when that happened.
By the way, this was the final throw that we saw from Tagovailoa:
Tagovailoa is up to 2,066 yards, 25 touchdown passes and still 0 interceptions. With Alabama off next week, that means Tagovailoa will head into November without an interception.
Oh, and he will indeed still be searching for his first fourth-quarter pass of the year in November. Thatās a real stat.
Even Dwayne Haskins, who is somehow up to 3/1 odds to win the Heisman, has attempted 37 fourth-quarter passes this year. Before Haskins played in Week 8, he still had 90 more passing attempts than Tagovailoa, yet he had just 3 more touchdowns and 265 more yards.
Thatās a quarter for Tagovailoa.
Considering the fact that Tagovailoaās 13.6 yards per attempt is on pace to shatter the FBS record 11.5 YPA that Baker Mayfield set during his Heisman Trophy season last year, heād be trouncing Haskinsā or Grierās numbers if he werenāt so efficient. Thereās no doubt about it. Weāre looking at a quarterback whoās as efficient as weāve ever seen in the sport.
On Saturday against Tennessee, Tagovailoa had Alabama up 21-0 in the first 7 minutes. I mean, Alabama has yet to score fewer than 13 points in the first quarter this year. After Tagovailoa got Alabama out to a 42-14 lead against the Vols, Alabama improved its first half average to 370 yards of offense.
Donāt be the person who holds that against Tagovailoa.
If youāre still waiting to see him play against an elite defense, I suppose I could rewind the tape of the national championship, or perhaps you will just ignore his 8-game dominance in 2018 and wait to the LSU game to make your opinion.
But still, what more do you want? Seriously. What more in 8 games can Tagovailoa do against his competition to show his worth? Heās been the closest thing to perfect that weāve ever seen from the position through the first 2 months of the season.
You cannot defend throws like this:
Do people even realize that heās only been sacked 3 times this year? Jarrett Stidham gets sacked that many times in a quarter.
What Tagovailoa is doing is so dominant that the lazy take is that itās boring. Itās not. If you still have that opinion, you havenāt watched a full game of Tagovailoa. Well, technically none of us have.
I find myself rooting for Alabamaās defense to struggle in games for the simple fact that I want to see Tagovailoa stay in for 60 minutes. Iām sure Iām not alone in that. Another part of me just wants to see how he handles throwing an interception or taking a costly sack. You know, outside of last yearās national championship.
Tagovailoa is the player that we just canāt get enough of, at least on the field. Thereās more than enough of Tagovailoa talk off the field. There should be.
Iāll be honest. When Tagovailoa hung tough and threw his final touchdown pass of the day Saturday, it bummed me out that we wouldnāt get to see him do that again for 2 weeks when Alabama travels to LSU for that all-important clash. If there are still people that Tagovailoa has to win over ā I canāt imagine there are very many ā there will be even fewer by the time the clock hits zero in Baton Rouge in a couple weeks.
And if not, well, I canāt help them. Theyāre just that person.
Just because itās obvious doesnāt mean itās not true.
That double-negative is a fitting way to introduce what should be a consensus thought as we bypass the unofficial midway point of the season.
Tua Tagovailoa is your Heisman Trophy favorite right now, unless youāre just being that person. Like, the person who argues that itās Sunday when itās Saturday. Somewhere, that person is drawing up some cumulative numbers suggesting that Tagovailoa doesnāt stack up with Will Grier or Kyler Murray.
Thatās cool. Theyāre wrong, but I suppose itās their right to do that. Theyāre probably right there with the people who didnāt make Babe Ruth get 100 percent of the vote to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Tagovailoa isnāt Ruth yet, though he hasnāt exactly shown signs that heās incapable of doing unprecedented things.
Howās that for a triple negative?
Saturdayās blowout win against Tennessee was a nice little reminder of just what Tagovailoa is capable of. And no, Iām not going to tell you that the Volsā defense is the 85 Bears ā everybody expects Alabama to face the nationās best defense every week or it doesnāt count ā but it was still a unit coached by one of the gameās best defensive minds in Jeremy Pruitt.
By the time Tagovailoaās day was done, it was the middle of the third quarter. Of course, it was after he threw his fourth touchdown pass to get Alabama to the 50-point mark for the sixth time in 8 games. And just in case there was any doubt that Tagovailoa wasnāt doing the heavy lifting, Alabama had fewer than 100 yards rushing when that happened.
By the way, this was the final throw that we saw from Tagovailoa:
Need not worry, Alabama fans. Tagovailoaās knee was fine. That was the question that was asked throughout the week after he left last Saturdayās game against Mizzou. We got an answer to that during Tagovailoaās eighth consecutive game with multiple touchdown passes and zero interceptions (yeah, thatās every game of 2018).Tagovailoa is up to 2,066 yards, 25 touchdown passes and still 0 interceptions. With Alabama off next week, that means Tagovailoa will head into November without an interception.
Oh, and he will indeed still be searching for his first fourth-quarter pass of the year in November. Thatās a real stat.
Even Dwayne Haskins, who is somehow up to 3/1 odds to win the Heisman, has attempted 37 fourth-quarter passes this year. Before Haskins played in Week 8, he still had 90 more passing attempts than Tagovailoa, yet he had just 3 more touchdowns and 265 more yards.
Thatās a quarter for Tagovailoa.
Considering the fact that Tagovailoaās 13.6 yards per attempt is on pace to shatter the FBS record 11.5 YPA that Baker Mayfield set during his Heisman Trophy season last year, heād be trouncing Haskinsā or Grierās numbers if he werenāt so efficient. Thereās no doubt about it. Weāre looking at a quarterback whoās as efficient as weāve ever seen in the sport.
On Saturday against Tennessee, Tagovailoa had Alabama up 21-0 in the first 7 minutes. I mean, Alabama has yet to score fewer than 13 points in the first quarter this year. After Tagovailoa got Alabama out to a 42-14 lead against the Vols, Alabama improved its first half average to 370 yards of offense.
Donāt be the person who holds that against Tagovailoa.
If youāre still waiting to see him play against an elite defense, I suppose I could rewind the tape of the national championship, or perhaps you will just ignore his 8-game dominance in 2018 and wait to the LSU game to make your opinion.
But still, what more do you want? Seriously. What more in 8 games can Tagovailoa do against his competition to show his worth? Heās been the closest thing to perfect that weāve ever seen from the position through the first 2 months of the season.
You cannot defend throws like this:
Do people even realize that heās only been sacked 3 times this year? Jarrett Stidham gets sacked that many times in a quarter.
What Tagovailoa is doing is so dominant that the lazy take is that itās boring. Itās not. If you still have that opinion, you havenāt watched a full game of Tagovailoa. Well, technically none of us have.
I find myself rooting for Alabamaās defense to struggle in games for the simple fact that I want to see Tagovailoa stay in for 60 minutes. Iām sure Iām not alone in that. Another part of me just wants to see how he handles throwing an interception or taking a costly sack. You know, outside of last yearās national championship.
Tagovailoa is the player that we just canāt get enough of, at least on the field. Thereās more than enough of Tagovailoa talk off the field. There should be.
Iāll be honest. When Tagovailoa hung tough and threw his final touchdown pass of the day Saturday, it bummed me out that we wouldnāt get to see him do that again for 2 weeks when Alabama travels to LSU for that all-important clash. If there are still people that Tagovailoa has to win over ā I canāt imagine there are very many ā there will be even fewer by the time the clock hits zero in Baton Rouge in a couple weeks.
And if not, well, I canāt help them. Theyāre just that person.
