4. The Really Big Thing Was …
Tua Tagovailoa’s injury.
It was so horribly unfortunate for a whole slew of reasons.
At the absolute top of the list is that the kid suffered a brutal injury. Please forgive the crassness of putting Tua Tagovailoa’s dislocated hip into a football discussion – his pain, health, and disappointment obviously overshadow everything else.
With that said …
This man is jamming with a dislocated hip… pic.twitter.com/N3KgnH1P8w
— Nick Saban (@sabanfaux) November 18, 2019
This didn’t have to happen. (I’ll dive into this aspect in much deeper detail in my Cavalcade of Whimsy column on Tuesday.) He was going to come out at halftime of the blowout win over Mississippi State, stayed in for one final series, and suffered the injury that ended his season prematurely.
And now, if he chooses to turn pro – he’s expected to make a full recovery – that ends one of the greatest quarterbacking careers in the history of college football.
If this really is it, he leaves having completed 69% of his passes for 7,442 yards and 87 touchdowns with 11 picks – with nine rushing touchdowns – finishing with an unfathomable career rating of close to 200.
He took a team to a national title game last season, won a national championship on one of the greatest and most dramatic walk-off passes in football history at any level, and he’ll go down as one of the all-time most talented pure passers the college game has ever seen.
On the field, Alabama might just be business as usual.
Remember, the program won a national title with John Parker Wilson under center. It’s possible the rest of the five-star parts of the Crimson Tide come together and close strong with Mac Jones at the helm.
But now, Tagovailoa’s injury might mean that anything less than a fantastic blowout of Auburn could justify the College Football Playoff committee keeping the Crimson Tide out.
CFN 1-130 Rankings | Bowl Projections
Early Week 13 Line Lookahead
Rankings: AP | USA Today Coaches | FWAA
– CFP Rankings Projection
– Predicting every remaining game, conference race
Quick Thoughts: Big Ten | SEC
Throughout Saturday, there were several references to 2014 Ohio State, when Cardale Jones stepped in for JT Barrett and went on to win the national title. But playing a third-string quarterback didn’t seem to make a difference in a 59-0 obliteration of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship.
Again, if Alabama wipes out Auburn, the Tagovailoa injury won’t be that big a factor for the committee.
And now this becomes a reference point from here on. Every time a game becomes a blowout and the star quarterback is still in, the announcer is going to bring up what happened in Starkville.
The injury happened in the early games. Ohio State’s Justin Fields was still in late in the first half against Rutgers, and it became a big topic of conversation on social media – of course the Buckeye coaching staff knew what happened earlier in the day.
Fields came out once things were well in hand.
However, Oregon was blowing away Arizona with ease, and the announcers were openly questioning the logic of leaving Justin Herbert in when the game was competitively over.
But again, beyond everything else, this is a superstar talent – and a fantastic guy – who’ll hopefully go on to have a brilliant career at the next level.
He certainly dominated this one.
Week 12 Roundup
Winners & Losers | Most Overrated Thing
Most Underrated Thing | What It All Means