No. 5 Alabama is certain to have a Tagovailoa on the field on Saturday against Western Carolina.
The season-ending injury suffered last week by starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa means his younger brother, freshman Taulia Tagovailoa, will move up to the No. 2 quarterback spot behind redshirt sophomore Mac Jones. And while the plan was for Taulia to take this season as a redshirt, coach Nick Saban said that won’t happen.
The younger Tagovailoa has appeared in four games for the Crimson Tide – the maximum he can play in and still redshirt.
Saban said Taulia will play Saturday because he needs to see more time on the field.
“We’re gonna play him this week in this game — some kind of way regardless of how the game goes — to try to get him some experience, some playing time and hopefully some confidence,” Saban said Thursday on his weekly radio show. “When we had the unfortunate injury last week to Tua, that kind of negated the opportunity to be able to redshirt to Taulia. …
“With him being now the backup quarterback, we thought we needed to play him, because if something happens to this quarterback, Mac Jones, he’s going to be the guy that’s got to go in the game and try to win the game for us.” Junior Tua Tagovailoa dislocated his right hip last Saturday when he was sacked and slammed to the ground by two Mississippi State defenders during the second quarter of the Crimson Tide’s 38-7 victory in Starkville, Miss. He underwent surgery on Monday.
Taulia was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2019, rated as the nation’s No. 5 pro-style quarterback on the 247Sports composite.
In four games on the season, he is 7-of-9 passing for 65 yards for Alabama (9-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference).
–Field Level Media
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