Alabama Football: Case Closed Tua Tagovailoa deserves the Heisman

There was a collective gasp from every Alabama Football fan in the country when Tua Tagovailoa went down in the second quarter of the classic Third Saturday in October match up. Tennessee thought they might have a chance with the best quarterback in the country in the locker room.

While Tennessee did hang around as long as they could, the Alabama Football team was able to take care of business in an uncomfortable position on the heels of Najee Harris and a few timely Volunteer mistakes.

Yet, the game felt weird without Tua. I returned to holding my breath every time the team faced a third down situation- especially third down and long. Without Tua able to pull off the RPO or quick slant, third down situations seemed terrifying.

There hasn’t been an opportunity to be disappointed in an inaccurate throw or missing a receiver in stride in quite a while. Saturday night’s game against Tennessee proved just how good Tua is. The argument that he has incredible receivers who bail him out is no longer valid. Mac Jones had the same future first round draft pick receivers in that game and frequently struggled to get them the ball.

Alabama Football had to return to the old style of offense with Najee Harris and Brian Robinson toting the rock. While I was thankful to see the team be able to impose their will running the ball when necessary, that style of offense, unfortunately, won’t cut it against LSU in a few weeks, especially not with a suspect defense.

Before Tua left the game injured, he was 11 for 12 for 155 yards. He did make a boneheaded mistake in the red zone that cost him an interception while trying to make something out of nothing, but other than that, he played like everyone expects. When Mac Jones took over, he went 6 for 11 only amounting 72 yards with no touchdowns.

Mac seemed anxious and unprepared for the stage he was unexpectedly thrown onto. He missed several receivers and skipped several passes off the dirt. Had it not been for a timely personal foul on Tennessee, the offense would have gone three consecutive three and outs for the first time in a long time.

As Rick Karle said, it became glaringly clear that Tua Tagovailoa is the reason the Alabama offense works. He is the reason they went from a run the ball powerhouse to a pass happy quick scoring offense. He ran off another Heisman hopeful quarterback. I couldn’t help but wish Jalen Hurts could still run out to save the day, but Tua’s remarkable talent is the reason Jalen no longer suits up for the Tide.

Tua does not deserve the Heisman because of his insane wide receiver core or because he happens to play for the number one team in the land. Tua does not deserve to be stripped of the Heisman trophy because of the country’s overwhelming Bama fatigue.

Tua completely transformed the Tide and deserves the credit for doing so. Until there is a campaign of NFL teams tanking their season to be able to draft someone else, no one is more deserving of college football’s best player award than Tua Tagovailoa.