Despite never starting in college, Tua Tagovailoa ranked nation’s 2nd-best QB by Sporting News
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Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see something like this.
Tua Tagovailoa has just been ranked as the nation’s second-best quarterback heading into the 2018 season by Bill Bender of the Sporting News. He even reveals he debated placing the Alabama sophomore as the nation’s best quarterback.
That’s remarkable considering Tagovailoa has never even started a game in college. While it appears a foregone conclusion at this point that he’ll seize the starting job in Tuscaloosa heading into the season, although that’s not written in stone by any means heading into the summer, that’s a ton of faith for a player that we’ve seen a total of 77 pass attempts in an Alabama uniform.
It’s almost as if everyone forgets Tagovailoa threw an ill-advised interception against Georgia and took a terrible sack in overtime that knocked Alabama out of field goal range during the first play of overtime for the Tide.
In total, seven SEC quarterbacks made an appearance on the list with three others with SEC experience also showing up. Starting with the QBs outside of the SEC — former Florida QB Will Grier at No. 5, former Ole Miss QB Shea Patterson at No. 15, former Texas A&M QB Kyler Murray at No. 18
Here are the SEC QBs that made the list:
- #2 — Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama
- #3 — Jake Fromm, Georgia
- #7 — Drew Lock, Missouri
- #9 — Jarrett Stidham, Auburn
- #11 — Jalen Hurts, Alabama
- #12 — Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State
- #17 — Jake Bentley, South Carolina
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
