Tagovailoa's father talks about son's Alabama decision

LAS VEGAS – Galu Tagovailoa smiled the entire time as he sat at Desert Breeze Park on a chilly March evening and reminisced about his son's shocking decision to attend college football kingpin Alabama.

Four-star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa committed to the Crimson Tide in early May after a visit to Tuscaloosa. It was a complete surprise to many. USC was the favorite for months, if not years, but that trip to Alabama changed things, changed the family’s thinking and changed Tagovailoa’s life.

“We were blown away,” Galu Tagovailoa recalls.

“That year they were the No. 1 team in the country. With Tua, he felt like winning the Elite 11 and then getting an offer from the No. 1 school in the country, he felt like this was his calling. He needed to be there.”

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The season played out and Alabama’s quarterback situation was unsettled until freshman phenom Jalen Hurts took over and led the Crimson Tide back to the national championship game, where they lost to Clemson.

With calmness and a steadiness unseen in many freshman quarterbacks, Hurts might have solidified his spot as Alabama’s starter for the next couple years.

But Tagovailoa never seriously budged from his Alabama pledge. Instead of looking elsewhere, the four-star quarterback from Honolulu (Hawaii) St. Louis looked even more forward to the competition ahead.

“To watch Jalen Hurts just tear things up, awesome season, and I felt like I needed to talk to Tua and reconfirm to see if that’s what he really wants,” Galu Tagovailoa said.

“He said, ‘Dad, if I’m going to play for the best team, if I’m going to be the best, then I have to compete against the best. I can’t second-guess myself.’ I said if he was set with his mind then let’s make it happen.”

It’s rarely a major surprise when a top prospect – Tagovailoa was rated as the third-best dual-threat quarterback and No. 53 overall in the 2017 class – commits to Alabama.

This one, though, was different.

USC was a lifelong favorite and Tagovailoa had called it his dream school. The four-star also had an outstanding relationship with then-UCLA assistant coach Marques Tuiasosopo, now at Cal.

But it was that trip to Tuscaloosa that sold him, sold the family, that it was the right place.

“It’s his maturity and his competitiveness,” Galu Tagovailoa said. “He likes to compete. He just loves competing.”

There was some intense last-minute competing for Tagovailoa’s services as well, a lot of it behind the scenes.

First-year Oregon coach Willie Taggart flew to Hawaii late in the process in an attempt to sway Tagovailoa to Eugene. While his attempts were appreciated, Tagovailoa was not budging. His mind was made up and his future was more than 4,000 air miles away in Alabama.

Tagovailoa’s brother, Taulia, is a promising 2019 quarterback who performed well at the adidas 7v7 National Championship and has already landed offers from Alabama, Florida Atlantic, Hawaii, Oregon and Utah.

Despite some reports, Galu Tagovailoa said moving to Alabama so the family could be closer to Tua is still only being considered.

“We were talking about it because my wife wants to get closer to her son and my little one (Taulia), I want to keep at Kapolei and get things going,” he said. “If momma goes, then the family goes. We looked into some things. Nothing is set in stone.

“That is far. It’s far from my family in Hawaii but at the same time our kids are our lives. We cherish our kids and their decision-making and what they want to do. At the same time, I love my parents, my mom is back home, I don’t want to leave her, and so are (Galu’s wife’s parents).”

For Galu Tagovailoa, the entire recruiting experience has been incredible.

From fighting for attention in Hawaii, to landing the biggest offers college football has to provide, to thinking USC was the right school, to picking Alabama and then hearing the late pitches from Oregon, it was certainly a memorable time.

It was stressful. It was exhilarating. It was a wild ride that might only be getting started now that Tagovailoa is with the Crimson Tide and could be the starting quarterback in a couple short years. There’s a real chance his son could be vying for national titles soon.

“You never expect this,” Galu Tagovailoa said. “You never expect this especially coming from the island but you appreciate these things and you want to utilize this experience to pass on to the kids on the island. Talking with them, letting them know what we’ve gone through and it’s not for everyone.

“Some people can take it and some people will think that’s a lot of work.”