Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had one of the more unique paths to Tuscaloosa. He’s the first Hawaii-born player to play quarterback for the Crimson Tide, and he went to Alabama over more popular schools for Hawaiian prospects like USC, UCLA and Oregon.
But there was a time when Tua was looking at a move to Pac-12 country.
The 2018 Heisman Trophy runner-up joined The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday, and he detailed just how close he was to transferring to USC after starting his career as Jalen Hurts’ backup.
He said:
“It was really close, I think. Because I wanted my parents to see me play. My parents wanted to see me play. Just doing things for my parents, making my parents happy and proud was probably the biggest thing I wanted to do. And I couldn’t do it on the sidelines.”
Tua’s close relationship — and sometimes troubling — with his parents has been a huge part of his journey to Alabama. It was his father who forced him to throw left-handed, chose his number and his school.
So, when Tua wasn’t playing, it’s easy to understand some second thoughts about the Alabama decision. But as we’ve seen the past year, their collective patience more than paid off.
