Nick Saban asked if he will start Tua Tagovailoa if Alabama QB is less than 100 percent
Tua Tagovailoa created headlines this week when he revealed he isn’t at 100 percent coming off ankle surgery while heading into the Orange Bowl National Semifinal against Oklahoma.
That bit of information was in contrast to what Nick Saban had been spinning for weeks. It began when the Alabama coach claimed Tua would be sidelined for two weeks the day after the 2018 SEC Championship Game, which took place over three and a half weeks ago.
Thankfully for the Tide, they have a very capable backup in Jalen Hurts. The 2016 SEC Offensive Player of the Year came off the bench to relive Tua in the latest SEC title game and rallied the Crimson Tide back from a deficit to win the contest.
Now that Tagovailoa has revealed he isn’t at 100 percent, at least as of this week, Saban was asked on Thursday if he would hesitate starting Tua if he isn’t at full capacity by game time come Saturday night.
“Look, I’m not really a medical expert,” Saban answered. “The medical staff makes the decision about whether a guy is capable of playing and going out there and doing his job, and then I think the player has to sort of have input on that, as well. In other words, medical staff can say he’s fine, but if the player doesn’t think he’s fine, then he’s not fine. Joe Namath used to always tell the old story about when he got his first knee operation when he was playing at Alabama, Coach Bryant told him, he said, ‘How do you feel?’ He said, ‘It really hurts’ and Coach Bryant said, ‘that’s all in your head,’ and he said, ‘it hurts just the same.’
“So if it’s in your head that you can do it or can’t do it, that goes a long way for me as a coach to know whether you think you can go do your job or not. Those decisions that we make between now and then, he’ll have input as to whether he feels like he can go out there and do his job or not.”
That response seems to at least open the door for Hurts to start for Alabama in the Orange Bowl. Considering the weaknesses of Oklahoma’s defense, it may not really matter which QB starts for the Crimson Tide but that may chance if Alabama were to meet Clemson in the upcoming National Championship Game.