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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tua Tagovailoa won’t have to deal with the drama of a quarterback battle this spring. However, the junior will still be subjected to what has now become a yearly challenge at Alabama.
Tagovailoa enters his third spring camp with the Crimson Tide and will be met by a third different offensive coordinator as Steve Sarkisian takes on the role left behind by Mike Locksley and Brian Daboll before him.
Sarkisian is no stranger to the Crimson Tide. He spent the 2016 season working as an analyst before being promoted to offensive coordinator for Alabama’s 35-31 defeat to Clemson in the 2017 national championship game. He’s also a familiar face to Tagovailoa, who received his first college offer from Sarkisian during his time at Southern California.
“I will be forever grateful for that,” Tagovailoa said. “But just the person he is. He is a good guy. He is a relationship person in the quarterback room with not only with me but everyone in there. It’s a really easy learning environment.”
While Sarkisian might be easygoing, his offense isn’t. The offensive coordinator is known for running a West Coast attack predicated on short precision passes, play-action and quick releases.
Last season, Tagovailoa excelled with play-action passes, particularly on run-pass option plays where he showed an uncanny ability to sell his handoffs before rifling quick slants to his speedy receivers.
However, those came in Locksley’s spread offense. Sarkisian, who spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, generally operates out of a pro-style formation that doesn’t use many RPOs.
Following Alabama’s first practice on March 8, head coach Nick Saban said he plans to run much of the same offense from last year while adding a few new wrinkles from Sarkisian.
“I'm sure that there are some things that they did in Atlanta just like there were some things when Brian Daboll came here that they did in New England that we implemented in the offense and those things were very helpful,” Saban said. “We'll do the same thing. If Sark's got things that he thinks are going to be beneficial and fit in with the things that we're doing then we'll implement some of those things.
“He's got great knowledge and experience and the biggest thing is he's well organized and he's got good relationships with the players and he's a good teacher.”
Monday, Tagovailoa said the team hasn’t fully installed all of Sarkisian’s West Coast principles and that he and the rest of the offense will “just kind of have to see what he has planned for us.”
“We have implemented a good amount of things that Sark likes to run and he has run in the past,” Tagovailoa said. “But we still have a good amount of the things that we have had last year. So, it’s not too much of a learning curve.”
While Sarkisian was fired by Atlanta in December, his offense last season ranked among the top 10 in the NFL in scoring (25.9 points per game), total offense (389.1 yards per game) and passing offense (290.8 ypg). Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan finished third in the NFL with 4,924 passing yards, while receiver and former Alabama great Julio Jones topped the league with 1,677 yards through the air.
“I think if you look at the body of work with the Falcons, they were like sixth in the NFL in offense or whatever so there's got to be some level of expertise to allow them to do that,” Saban said. “The players that I talked to there thought he did a really good job and was a good coach. He's, I think, a tremendous asset on our staff and we're very pleased and happy to have him.
“We had a whole list of people we went through to hire and I feel like we were really, really fortunate to get a guy that was offered the Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator job to come to Alabama, and had a successful stint in the NFL.”
One major difference that stems from Sarkisian’s hire is the absence of a quarterbacks coach. Last year, Alabama used a specified quarterbacks coach for the first time in the Saban era as it brought in Dan Enos solely to oversee the position. The move was frequently credited with the progression of both Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts.
This year, Alabama shifted back to its typical setup as Sarkisian will oversee the quarterbacks on top of his offensive coordinator duties. The move makes sense considering Sarkisian has previously coached quarterbacks at Southern California as well as with the Oakland Raiders.
It’s also worth noting that Alabama brought in Major Applewhite as an offensive analyst. Applewhite, who most recently served as the head coach at Houston from 2016-18, was Saban’s first offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2007 where he oversaw the quarterbacks. The former Texas quarterback has also coached quarterbacks at Rice, Texas and Houston.
When asked about the setup Monday, Tagovailoa said he actually prefers working directly with an offensive coordinator rather than a separate quarterbacks coach.
“I’d say that helps because they’re not going elsewhere to hear information,” Tagovailoa said. “They’re not going to the receivers. They hear this from the receivers and then they’re coming to the quarterbacks and they’re hearing this from the quarterbacks. They’re just hearing it directly from the quarterbacks. And the relationship between your quarterback and your OC is definitely something big.”
Alabama will hold its Pro Day on Tuesday before heading to the practice fields Wednesday. While Tagovailoa will watch this year’s Pro Day from the sidelines, he’ll likely be throwing in front of NFL scouts next year, looking to prove he can fit into yet another offensive scheme.
“These guys have their own style, and you just got to learn to go with it because at the next level it is not always going to be the same person,” Tagovailoa said. “So, you’ve got to be able to adjust and you’ve got to be able to go with it as well. So, they all have different styles. Coach Locksley was one way. Coach Daboll was another way and with the offense we’re running now it’s different, too. It’s just getting used to what they’re doing and what they like and going with it.”
