Alabama Football: Top 5 moments of Tua Tagovailoa’s Tide career

5. Touchdown passes vs. Vanderbilt, Louisville

As a true freshman, there was never really any hype for Tua Tagovailoa to be the main man over then starter Jalen Hurts. When Alabama starting blowing their opponents out though, everyone would get to see bits and pieces of what he was able to do.

The first opportunity came in late September 2017 against Vanderbilt. Up 45-0 in the middle of the third quarter, Tua dropped back, evaded a defender, spun away from another one, and dropped a ball perfectly into Devanta Smith’s hand in the opposite corner of the end zone.

This was the introduction to Tagovailoa that had everyone thinking “Oh boy.”

The next season, after a long spring/summer/fall of debate and competition between Tagovailoa and Hurts, Tua was named the starter for Alabama’s season opener against Louisville. On the first drive of the game, Tagovailoa made a similar type of play that he did against Vanderbilt, spinning while dropping a ball perfectly into Jerry Jeudy’s hands in the opposite corner of the end zone.

From this point on, everyone knew that Tagovailoa was going to take this Alabama offense to a new level.