Alabama Football: Tua Tagovailoa has gone from backup QB to Tide legend

Alabama football’s freshman quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, has gone from backup to Crimson Tide legend. How did he do it?

The Crimson Tide went into the locker room trailing to Georgia 13-0. Alabama coach Nick Saban made the bold decision to insert true freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the place of the struggling Jalen Hurts. Right off the bat, Tagovailoa ignited the Tide offense with this magnificent scramble on a third and long to keep the drive alive.

This led to a touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs III to put Alabama on the board early in the third quarter. But for a while the Tide offense went back to being stagnant as they only managed two field goals from kicker Andy Pappanastos made the score 20-13. That’s when Tagovailoa cemented himself as an Alabama legend.

Tagovailoa led the Tide on a eight play, 66 yard drive and fired the game-tying touchdown pass to star wide receiver Calvin Ridley with just over three minutes to play in the championship game.

After both teams failed to score at the end of regulation, Georgia added a 51-yard field goal to give them a three-point advantage. The first play on the ensuing drive showed that maybe the Tide were not meant to win this game, as Tagovaiola was sacked for a 16-yard loss. But, like he had all night, Tagovailoa made a play, a play that not only cemented himself into Alabama history, but into College Football History.

Needless to say, almost no one expected the 5-star true freshman from Honolulu, Hawaii to play, which makes this one of the greatest single-game relief appearances in the history of sports. It matches the performances of the greats like Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, Frank Reich’s performance in the Buffalo Bills comeback against the Houston Oilers in the 1993 NFL Playoffs and many others.

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It appears that Tagovailoa has set himself up to become the new quarterback of the Crimson Tide, but no matter what happens throughout the rest of his career, he will always have a spot in Alabama and college football history.