Taulia Tagovailoa and Maryland head football coach Michael Locksley are looking to capture lightning in a bottle a second time.
Locksley announced on Friday that Tagovailoa was joining the Terrapins program. This isn’t the first Tagovailoa that Locksley has been able to coach, as he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2018 when older brother, Tua Tagovailoa threw for a Crimson Tide record 4,231 yards.
Tagovailoa announced his intention to leave Alabama and enter the transfer portal on May 8, a week later he has a new home in College Park, Maryland.
“I’m incredibly grateful to all of the amazing people at Alabama, but am also thrilled to join the Terrapin Football Family. I have a great relationship with Coach Locksley and am excited to see what he’s building. I can’t wait to be part of it, and I plan on working incredibly hard both on and off the field to make my family, teammates, coaches, and fans proud.”
The 5-foot-11 signal-caller was highly recruited after breaking all sorts of Alabama high school records and threw for 3,728 yards and 35 touchdowns as a high school senior. Tagovailoa joins a quarterback room that recently lost two players to the transfer portal, but does bring back a returning senior in Josh Jackson.
“Taulia has terrific touch and trajectory on his throws and delivers the ball with above-average accuracy,” said Locklesy in a press release. “He’s a highly competitive player that will bring great competition to a good quarterback room.”
Without a waiver, Tagovailoa would have to sit out the 2020 season and have two years of eligibility remaining starting the 2021 season.
The Terrapins are coming 3-9 record in 2019 while going 1-8 in Big Ten play with the only win being at Rutgers.
Maryland is scheduled to open the season on Saturday, September 5, when they take on Towson in Maryland Stadium.
Written by Danny Morales
Image Credit: University of Maryland Athletics
