Alabama coach Nick Saban has seen loads of players make it to the NFL, but former star QB Tua Tagovailoa is different. That’s because of his injury history, and what he did for the University of Alabama.

“We’re always excited for all of our players that they have dreams of playing in the NFL someday,” Saban said at his Monday press conference. “You’re really always happy and proud to see that dream come to fruition for them. Most guys don’t have to go through what Tua went through in terms of the adversity he had to overcome from an injury standpoint with the hip injury, but he worked hard, and he’s back to 100 percent.”

Tagovailoa made his NFL debut on Sunday as he got in for the Miami Dolphins in place of Ryan Fitzpatrick, who waved the crowd to cheer louder for Tagovailoa when he came on the field with 2:27 left in the win over the New York Jets. The Dolphins’ possible next franchise quarterback ran onto the field to a big roar from the crowd of 10,772.

Tagovailoa was 2-for-2 passing for nine yards in the win over the Jets.

Saban added that Tagovailoa is in a class by himself in terms of being a spokesman for Alabama.

“We haven’t had anybody in this program since I’ve been here that’s been a better ambassador for the university, a better ambassador for the program, than Tua has been,” Saban said. “Our thoughts and prayers are always with him and we hope that he does extremely well and it won’t surprise me if that’s the case.”