HOOVER, Ala. — Tua Tagovailoa smiled, looking down at an Apple Watch on his left wrist. The new addition is one of several small measures the Alabama quarterback is taking to ensure he’s in the best possible shape for the coming season.
“I see Coach Cochran doing it, so I was like ‘What is that?’” Tagovailoa said. “Then he showed me how many calories he’s burned, and I was like ‘I’m going to go get me an Apple Watch.'”
Tagovailoa’s weight made a few headlines this offseason when he measured in at 6-foot, 230 pounds during Alabama’s junior pro day. Dealing with multiple injuries late last season, the quarterback explained that he still had to participate in rehab sessions following Alabama’s 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game in January. The time spent on the training table kept him off his feet and ultimately resulted in a few unwanted pounds.
However, an extensive training regimen — as well as a mindful tracking of steps— helped the quarterback drop roughly 15 pounds over the summer. During his appearance at SEC Media Days on Wednesday, Tagovailoa said he’s now at 215 pounds, three away from the goal of 218 set by Alabama coaches.
“It was very important to me to get back in shape,” he said. “I feel a lot healthier than I did probably since I got to the University of Alabama.”
Jerry Jeudy said he’s noticed an increase in discipline from Tagovailoa this offseason. In fact, it was the Biletnikoff Award winner who outed his quarterback’s awareness of step count during interviews Wednesday.
“Today I saw him with his little step watch to count how many steps he’s taken,” Jeudy said. “That’s something I figured out he was doing today. I guess he dropped a couple pounds.”
Tagovailoa didn’t have much opportunity to build up a step count Wednesday as he was shuffled to various media stops. When asked if he had a record for most steps in a day he deadpanned, “It’s over 28,000” before breaking out in a smile.
“Not that much,” he admitted. “We’ll say 10,000. We can’t wear these things while we’re working out — 10,000 is actually a lot for us.”
Tagovailoa’s weight is just one of several questions he has faced over his health this offseason. Despite his record-breaking rise to stardom over the past two years, the junior has dealt with a growing list of injuries during his time with the Crimson Tide.
Tagovailoa sat out last year’s spring camp after twice fracturing a bone in his throwing hand. He then sprained the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in October and suffered a quadriceps injury the following month before spraining his left ankle in the SEC Championship Game.
Last month, Tagovailoa raised even more concern after he was held out of the Manning Passing Academy with a slight hamstring pull. Wednesday he explained the absence wasn't anything to worry over, stating that he feels 100 percent.
“I had a tight hamstring and our trainers didn’t want me to go because they felt if I ended up doing something strenuous there that it might end up being tweaked,” Tagovailoa said. “I might have actually pulled it. They didn’t want to take the risk so they wanted me to stay back at the university and do treatment.”
Last season, Tagovailoa earned both the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards while finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He passed for an Alabama single-season record 43 touchdowns and 3,966 passing yards while leading the nation with a 199.4 quarterback rating.
Despite the success, the star quarterback has been challenged by Nick Saban several times this offseason as the Alabama head coach has pushed him not to rest on his laurels.
“I think Tua is the kind of guy that’s never really satisfied, and I think he had an outstanding year last year,” Saban said. “Are there things that he can improve on? I don’t think there’s any question about that. Towards the end of the season, we turned the ball over a little bit more offensively than what we had in the first half of the season. And I’m sure that he wants to make sure that the decision-making that led to some of those things are something that he can improve on.”
Tagovailoa touched on several of points of improvement Wednesday, stating a desire to be a better leader both on and off the field. However, none of that will be possible without proper maintenance.
For that, he’s taking things one step at a time.
“I think the next step for me is getting into the training room,” Tagovailoa said. “Being able to take care of myself in every aspect, whether I’m hurting or not. It’s being able to take care of it. Everybody uses the analogy of a car. If you don’t get a tuneup for your car it’s not going to work the same way when you drove it off the lot.”
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Andrew Bone, of BamaInsider.com, is a real estate broker in the state of Alabama.
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