HNN- After Alabama won the national title, Kiffin – now the head coach at Florida Atlantic – claimed Tagovailoa had long been considering transferring to another school. According to Tagovailoa, that may have actually been the case.
"I called my dad and asked him if my offer to the University of Southern California was still available," Tagovailoa told the crowd of seventh and eighth graders. "I wanted to leave. I told my dad I wanted to go to a school where I thought it'd be easier for me and wouldn't challenge me so much." The former Crusader went on to tell the students that this particular conversation with his father took place early in his time in Tuscaloosa – and that it actually landed him in hot water with his family. "Even throughout my football season, I wasn't the starter," Tagovailoa continued. "I wanted to leave the school. So I told myself if I didn't play in the last game, which was the national championship game, I would transfer out. If I gave in, I don't think I would have seen the end blessing of where I am now." ---------- Within the religion that is big time college football, it's undoubtedly blasphemous to speak even a relative ill of the Prophet Saban, who has crossed the Crimson Tide into territory that now untouchable. Alabama has been an absolute juggernaut for a decade, going back to his hiring as head coach, and the impressiveness of that shouldn't be understated. That being said, what I refuse to overstate is the genius of someone who - if not for one laughably broken coverage - would have cost his team a title with a bad decision that turned out so poorly that he had to retreat from it out of desperation just before it was too late. I won't say that Nick Saban is overrated, although all I'd really be saying is that he's not a beard away from being a Biblical figure, but I will say that he's lucky that Jalen Hurts saved his ass by sucking so bad. There's like, give or take, a 70% chance that Tua Tagovailoa leads Alabama to another National Championship next year, as opposed to taking snaps in Southern California, and that's solely because their irreproachable head coach was too stubborn to start a superior player all season. I suppose he gets credit for fortuitously sneaking him into the game prior to the unspoken deadline, but it wasn't exactly a difficult choice given how it had played out to that point. I guess, if nothing else, this story really just goes to show that recruiting and reputation are more important than the calls you make on the sidelines come Saturday. Nick Saban has earned his margin for error, but I don't think it's unfair to say that he used quite a bit of it last season.
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