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At the end of the first half of this year’s College Football Playoff National Championship, Alabama was down 13-0 to Georgia and in serious need of a shakeup if they wanted to bring the trophy back to Tuscaloosa. Nick Saban and his large testicles decided the best solution was to replace starting quarterback Jalen Hurts with the largely unproven freshman Tua Tagovailoa and the decision immediately started to pay off.
The game eventually went into overtime, where Tagovailoa became an instant legend when he converted a ridiculous pass just short of the 50-yard line into a game-winning touchdown and gave the Crimson Tide their second national championship since the advent of the college football playoff (despite UCF’s claims to the contrary).
His performance set the stage for a battle for the starting position this offseason, but Alabama’s offense would have looked slightly different this year if Saban had decided to keep his wagon hitched to his starter. Tagovailoa recently spoke with Hawaii News Now and revealed that he was going to transfer from Bama if he didn’t get a chance to play in the final game of the season:
“Even throughout my football season, I wasn’t the starter. I wanted to leave the school. So I told myself if I didn’t play in the last game, which was the national championship game, I would transfer out. If I gave in, I don’t think I would have seen the end blessing of where I am now.”
The Hawaiian native said he wanted to transfer to the University of Southern California— where he would have been relatively closer to home— but it seems like he’s perfectly content staying in Alabama for the time being. Saban recently said he hasn’t entertained the prospect of playing two quarterbacks next season, so it looks like things could get very interesting down south in the coming months.