Alabama Football: Tua will be the best QB Saturday and any other game

Alabama football fans cast aside concerns over Tua’s ankle and ignore the noise of him once not being a Tide fan, or you might miss his true greatness.

We Alabama football fans can sometimes lose sight of a balanced perspective. In our national championships are a birthright cocoon, we can, in un-Saban-like fashion, get blinded by a glorious destination, losing sight of the joy of the journey.

Such national championship tunnel-vision can also lead to distraction. This week many of us are agonizing over the difference between Tua Tagovailoa being 85 percent recovered from an ankle injury and 100 percent. Some of us were even startled to learn Tua did not always revere Alabama football as he grew up in Hawaii. Many of us look at the Orange Bowl as a chance to rectify the wrong of Tua missing out on the Heisman award.

If we are not careful, these distractions and others may cause us to be insufficiently aware of something more, something deeper. Something that goes beyond even winning another national championship. During the greatest team run in college football history, we may also be seeing the greatest Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback ever – and maybe, at some point, college football’s greatest ever QB.

Are we blinded by Crimson glare, seeing a premature vision of the future? Possibly, but I doubt it. Outside the expansive bounds of the Crimson Nation, other, more objective observers are coming to the same conclusion.

Rodger Sherman writing for The Ringer described the challenge for any of us trying to write about Tua.

"with Tagovailoa I find myself drawn to hyperbole. I can’t help it. Everything about him is so different and so radical.It seems fair to dream of a ridiculous future for Tagovailoa, because everything he’s done to this point has been objectively ridiculous."

Alabama football is blessed to have Tua and Jalen Hurts on the same roster. Calling both of them exceptional is trite but accurate. We could easily be writing a glowing tribute about Jalen.

Tua, however, is something else, not just a great player but a presence. He was identified and targeted for greatness as a small child by his grandfather, Seu. Greg Bishop, writing for si.com says Seu prophesied his infant grandson was destined for greatness as a football player.

"Tua’s grandfather sought to influence future generations of Tagovailoas by sowing fearlessness in their souls. He would tell them that they were lions, strong and daring and capable of transforming sheep into mighty warriors. This was Tua’s destiny, of that Seu was certain"

Tua’s father Galu had a plan for his son to attend USC. That plan was quickly discarded when Nick Saban called with an offer. Tua would come to Alabama and Galu and his wife Diane would move their family across the country because it was what Seu would have expected. Fulfill the destiny.

Tua accepted the decision as a normal component of Samoan culture discipline. A discipline that can be criticized as both loving and harsh. Comparisons have been made between Seu, Galu and Nick Saban.

"Both his father and his coach come from a more rigid generation that shaped their approach to life. He says his parents reinforced the tenets of their culture—listen to elders, focus on content rather than delivery—and that’s the same approach he uses with his coach. Asked if his father holds more in common with Saban than is visible on the surface, Tua says something jolting: “Well, see the coaches here, they can’t hit us.”"

The Bible and belt parenting in the Tagovailoa clan is subject to debate. We’ll leave those judgments to others. Tua says,

"the ease he showcases on the field is rooted in the discipline that defined his upbringing. He says it allows him to be more creative, to play more freely, says he was more nervous in high school than in the title game, because his parents had prepared him, because his life had pointed to that moment. “You could put a billion people out there to watch us play, and I’d still be in the comfort zone,”"

As Rodger Sherman opined, we are compelled to agree. There may have never been another Alabama football quarterback so naturally capable of being in the “zone.” Having a presence of mind, strengthened by such a strong will it leads to extraordinary accomplishment.

Tua’s family sees it, his teammates see it, his coach calls it simply,

"“athletic intuition”—a combination of instincts and feel that he believes quarterbacks can hone but not learn from scratch."

Tua Tagovailoa’s story is far from being fully written. It is staggering to remember in his college football career, he has thrown less than ten, fourth-quarter passes. Injuries this season have reminded us all the young man is mortal. His early greatness has not assured his destiny. Expectations for him are now so incredibly high, he may fail to fully reach them.

If he ever falters, we Alabama football fans should strive to react to it with some of the grace and dignity he will no doubt exhibit. When Tua takes the field Saturday night in south Florida, he will not be thinking like an Alabama football fan. In his mind will be so much more. He will play for God, his family, his coach, his teammates, the Samoan culture and last of all, himself.

Whatever the outcome of Saturday’s game or any future game, Alabama football fans would be wise to cherish who Tua is as much as we cherish what Tua does.

Adding a personal perspective to the stories by Greg Bishop and Rodger Sherman was only an elaboration of their themes and thoughts. Use the links above to read their entire stories and you will be glad to have taken the time.