Should Nick Saban sit Tua Tagovailoa against Tennessee? Paul Finebaum weighs in
Tua Tagovailoa’s nagging knee injury has been a focal point of college football for the last two weeks.
Tagovailoa originally sprained his knee against Arkansas, and he re-aggravated it against Missouri last Saturday. Nick Saban expressed that Tagovailoa could have re-entered the game against Mizzou, but there was no need, as the Tide were up big on the Tigers.
Leading into the Tennessee game, Saban has said repeatedly that Tagovailoa is fine and practiced all week.
There has been some discussion, however, about whether Saban should sit Tagovailoa for the game against Tennessee to get him ready for the LSU game. Paul Finebaum agrees with that notion, and he hopped on SportsCenter Saturday morning to discuss.
“I would not risk injury, especially with a bye week next week,” Finebaum said on SportsCenter. “On top of that, they’re playing Tennessee today and they’re a prohibitive favorite. Their backup quarterback is, don’t forget, Jalen Hurts. He’s been in his stadium and won convincingly. He was 26-2 as a starter. LSU game two weeks from now in Baton Rouge … common sense decision is sit Tua. Nick Saban is not asking me. Tua will play today.”
Finebaum knows that Saban will play Tagovailoa against Tennessee, and we’re under the impression that he should, too. However, if things get out of hand early, we expect to see a lot of Jalen Hurts.
Tagovailoa is the Heisman Trophy favorite entering Week 8 having thrown 21 TDs and no INTs.
Alabama and Tennessee kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports.
