Tua Tagovailoa was a highly recruited prospect out of high school, and his recruiting started early, dating back to when current Nebraska coach Scott Frost was at Oregon as an assistant.

Of course, the Alabama freshman just led the Crimson Tide to an incredible come-from-behind victory in Monday’s National Championship Game, proving he’s a special player.

However, Frost is surprised that Alabama coach Nick Saban, in all his greatness, didn’t see that Tagovailoa was better than Jalen Hurts all along:

The full quote can be seen below, as shared by ESPN’s Sam Khan Jr.:

“It was a decision I don’t know I would have been courageous enough to make. That’s the answer you want to hear. The other answer is that he was pretty obviously better and they had 12 games to figure that out and didn’t. Coach Saban is above criticism with everything he’s accomplished, so I don’t mean it that way, but I recruited Tua out of high school and knew what he could do and it doesn’t surprise me that he did what he did. Jalen’s a great player, too. That was a very bold and courageous move and I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier [in the season].”

Frost has been very outspoken in his criticism of the SEC and the College Football Playoff and, well, pretty much everything since UCF finished off its undefeated season with a win over Auburn.

It’s never wise to poke Saban, though, and it’s probably safe to say Saban has seen these comments, even if he’ll never admit to it.