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Alabama Football: 3 Reasons Tua Tagovailoa deserves the 2018 Heisman Trophy

By John Mitchell

TUSCALOOSA, AL - NOVEMBER 24: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide rushes off the field after their 52-21 win over the Auburn Tigers at Bryant-Denny Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
TUSCALOOSA, AL - NOVEMBER 24: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide rushes off the field after their 52-21 win over the Auburn Tigers at Bryant-Denny Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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The front-runner throughout the 2018 season, Alabama Football‘s Tua Tagovailoa is among three finalists for the Heisman Trophy. Here’s why he should be the one taking it home.

A touchdown pass on 2nd-and-26 to win the National Championship over Georgia last season set in motion unrealistic hype and expectations for Tua Tagovailoa heading in 2018. He was the odds-on-favorite to win the Heisman Trophy in the preseason before he had even started a game.

Tua famously came off the bench for the second half of last season’s title game, replacing the struggling incumbent Jalen Hurts, and leading the Crimson Tide back from 13-0 down to a 20-7 second half that sent the game to overtime. There he delivered one of the most famous passes in history to win the game.

The expectations surrounding the sophomore from Hawai’i soon ballooned out of control, fans and pundits deifying him as the second coming before he was even named the team’s starting quarterback.

Somehow, Tua immediately exceeded all expectations from the time he first set foot on the field in Orlando for the season opener against Louisville. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said it best before Tua took the field, his words becoming prophetic:

"“If I see Tua trot out there for the first snap, I’ll just say to everyone ‘I’m sorry’ because it’s going to be a long year and they’re going to score literally 45-50 every game.”"

Tua immediately proved Herbstreit right, making quick work of Louisville with 227 yards and three total touchdowns on 12-of-16 passing, beginning his decimation of the competition on Alabama’s schedule.

Led by the left-handed passing savant, Alabama’s offense rolled up 47.9 points-per-game with ruthless efficiency, making short work of every opponent in its path.

In the regular season, Alabama became the first team since Yale in 1888 to beat all 12 of its opponents by at least 20 points. Tua led the Crimson Tide’s offense to 50+ points in eight games, and has led the Heisman Trophy race all season long.

Otherworldly numbers from Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, along with last weekend’s SEC Championship Game, have made this race for the stiff-arm trophy extremely close as we sit just a couple of days away from the winner being announced.

Murray is now the betting favorite, but it’s harder to get a gauge on the winner with the Heisman Trust suppressing voters’ ability to make their ballots public ahead of the announcement on Saturday night.

While I do think it’s close between Murray and Tua, with Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins serving as one of the best third place finishers of all time, and a case can certainly be made for all three, only one guy can walk away with the most prestigious individual award in college football.

Here’s why it should Tua Tagovailoa:

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