Saban: Tagovailoa has a lot to prove following the way the season ended
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It was the worst ending to a near-perfect season for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. A 44-16 embarrassing loss to Clemson in the national title game stopped Alabama from winning another national title and prevented Alabama from being the first team in college football to win 15-games in a season. During the SEC Spring Meetings on Tuesday, Nick Saban said that he would like to see Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa challenge himself and overcome how the season ended in January.
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“I think being hurt was an issue for him at the end of the season and I think that he has to challenge himself to get back into great shape and overcome some of the things that happened toward the end of the year. I think he should take the perception that he has a lot to prove relative to how we ended the season," commented Saban.
The Crimson Tide went 14-1 in 2018 under Tagovailoa who had a brilliant season other than the game against Clemson finishing the season 245 of 355 with 3,966-yards, 43 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. Two of his six interceptions came in the final game of the season against the Tigers.
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Tagovailoa recently spoke with ESPN's Ed Aschoff during the Steve Clarkson quarterback retreat and provided some insight into the Crimson Tide's spring mindset and motivation.
“Well, it's kind of hard because, after a game like that, I mean everyone has their heads down. I mean you as a leader you know you just came off a loss so I think it's a hard situation because you don't have anything to look forward to after a game like that because that's your last game,” Tagovailoa told Aschoff.
During Alabama's annual spring game back on April 12, Tagovailoa was 19 of 37 passing with 265-yards and one touchdown.
“I think where we kind of started to pick everything up was regrouping for the spring, getting ready as a team for the spring. I think the biggest thing for us is finding leadership on our team. I think we’re still trying to find that and what not. As far as what we're trying to do to regroup and rebuild as a team. We're not trying to worry about what happened last year. We're just trying to see what we can do to better ourselves and see what we can do to become successful this year.”
Tagovailoa and the Tide have had three different offensive coordinators over the last three seasons: Brian Daboll in 2017, Mike Locksley in 2018, and this season Alabama's offense and quarterback room will be led by Steve Sarkisian. Sarkisian and Tagovailoa have a great relationship and have known each other for quite some time as Sarkisian recruited Tagovailoa when Sarkisian was the head coach at USC.
When Aschoff asked Tagovailoa about Sarkisian, Tagovailoa seemed pleased with the job he's done this spring.
"I wouldn't say Coach Sarkisian has taught us things we didn't know. I think it's more so of him kind of sharpening the things that we know and just helping us become the best players that we can be. Not just for me, but for everyone on our offense as well. I think he's done a tremendous job this year.”
Aschoff ended his interview with Tagovailoa asking about next year's NFL draft. "I haven't had any talks about it. I'm just looking forward to this upcoming season and hopefully, everything plans out the way we want it to go."