The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Alabama QB Tagovailoa named Walter Camp Player of the Year
The events of Saturday’s SEC football championship followed an eerily similar script to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
In January, Tua Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts to lead a big second-half Alabama comeback over Georgia for the national title. On Saturday, Hurts returned the favor as the Crimson Tide again came from behind to beat Georgia for the SEC title, locking up the top seed in this year’s playoff.
“That’s a movie, right there,” Tagovailoa said Thursday by phone, a few hours before being named the Walter Camp Player of the Year at college football’s awards show in Atlanta.
“You couldn’t tell me I was going into second half of national championship game and we were going to win the game, only for me to leave this year and Jalen would bring us back in the fourth quarter. I mean, really. That’s a movie.”
The next plot twist is anyone’s guess.
Alabama is hopeful Tagovailoa can recover from ankle surgery earlier this week in time for a semifinal game with Oklahoma on Dec. 29. If not, there’s a capable contingency plan in Hurts.
Tagovailoa’s surgery to repair a high ankle sprain is considered minor, though three weeks is a quick turnaround. He tooled around
Atlanta on a knee scooter and received treatment from team trainers in his hotel room in the hours before the ESPN broadcast.
“In my mind, I’ll be ready to play,” Tagovailoa said. “I’m working on getting better every day with therapy in treatment. We have to use up every second and every minute we can to get this thing better.”
Some have wondered whether the injury cost Tagovailoa his shot at becoming the first Alabama quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy. Tagovailoa will be in New York on Saturday for the presentation along with fellow finalists Kyler Murray of Oklahoma and Dwayne Haskins of Ohio State.
It could become one of the closest votes in history. Tagovailoa and Murray are considered co-favorites, both more than worthy.
The New Haven-based Walter Camp Award, also for the national player of the year, has mirrored the Heisman winner each of the past five years. Tagovailoa was considered the favorite leading into Saturday. But voters, whose ballots were due Monday evening, may have been swayed after Tagovailoa played through an earlier injury Saturday before leaving for good in the fourth quarter.
Earlier Thursday, Murray was named the Associated Press player of the year. Tagovailoa was appreciative of the Walter Camp Award.
“It means a lot,” Tagovailoa said. “Just to be nominated for any award is awesome. To win one, to have something like this under my belt now, I’m grateful. It’s a testament to the people surrounding me, starting with my teammates and coaches.”
As a young child growing up in Oahu, Tagovailoa slept with a football tucked under his arm. At 8, he’d prepare for Pop Warner games by crashing Sunday passing camps to throw with the high school varsity quarterbacks, including Marcus Mariota, five years his elder and the 2015 Heisman winner.
In time Tagovailoa became a star at Honolulu’s St. Louis School. The heaviest pressure to perform came from home. Tagovailoa, in an interview with ESPN’s College Game Day that aired prior to Saturday’s SEC championship game, admitted his father might use his belt if he performed poorly in a game.
Galu Tagovailoa, a former Juco defensive lineman, also forced Tua, a natural right-hander, to learn to throw with his left. By the time he was a senior, Tagovailoa was the topranked dual-threat quarterback in the country. When it came time to pick a college, Tua said his father made the final choice: Alabama.