Alabama Football: How to properly measure Tua Tagovailoa’s legacy

How can Alabama football quantify what Tua Tagovailoa did for the Tide?

Tua Tagovailoa is arguably the most famous Alabama football player in recent memory. He will go down as one of the best to ever play college football. However, we don’t have a true way to quantify his legacy.

Tagovailoa has passing records, he won a championship, and he is the first quarterback of the Saban era to be drafted in the first round. However, there is no accurate way to judge what he meant to the Crimson Tide. Let’s take a look at ways to measure his impact in Tuscaloosa, and why they all fall short.

The obvious way to measure a player’s impact in college football is to look at the stats. Tua broke plenty of records with the Crimson Tide, including career touchdowns passes, completion percentage, and touchdowns passes in a season. In fact, his injury-plagued junior year also earned him second on the season touchdown leaderboard. However, he failed to achieve many career records due to his shortened time with the team. He started for less than two years while other legends got at least three.

One way all Alabama football players get judged is by how many rings they leave with. However, that isn’t necessarily fair for Tua. He never officially won a national championship as a starting quarterback. Even with his ring after starring against Georgia in his freshman year, McCarron has more national championships. Plenty of Tide stars earned two championships in their collegiate careers.

So, how can we measure Tua’s legacy accurately? I think there’s one way.

How Alabama football should actually measure Tua’s legacy.

There’s only one real way to explain what Tua meant to the Crimson Tide. It had nothing to do with stats. It doesn’t even have to do with championships. In fact, it all boils down to the intangibles. Tua’s legacy includes his fame. You have to factor in how Alabama fans felt when they saw him on the field. He was the first quarterback of Saban’s tenure that gave Alabama ultimate confidence. No matter what the situation was, you thought that Tua was going to save the team. That’s the legacy you build after coming back in the national championship as a true freshman.

Tua made the Tide’s offense fun to watch in a way that had never been done before. The electricity in the stands when he took the field is incomparable. You can’t even compare it to Derrick Henry’s Heisman-winning season.

That’s the legacy that will last forever in Alabama football history. It reverberates through recruiting. Bryce Young likely would not have committed to the Tide if he hadn’t seen the success of Tua Tagovailoa.

Part of Tua’s legacy has to also be his injuries. However, they don’t tarnish his legacy in the slightest. Alabama has seen gruesome and devastating injuries to fan-favorite players in the past. That being said, the Crimson Tide community has never rallied around a player like they did when Tua dislocated his hip. It even led to loyal fans questioning Saban because they were struck with grief towards their favorite player. Fans weren’t upset that their title dreams were likely destroyed. They were hurt because Tua was hurt. That speaks to just how much he meant to Alabama football.

At the end of the day, Tua’s legacy is second and 26. It’s his face paint. It’s his highlights, his injuries, and everything in between. That’s the only way to discuss what he means to the Crimson Tide without doing him a great disservice.