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Dolphins’ Tua once supplanted Eagles QB Jalen Hurts at Alabama; the two meet for first time in NFL on Sunday

david furones, south florida sun-sentinel
·5 min read

MIAMI GARDENS — Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts will always be linked as the two players involved in maybe the most famous in-game quarterback change in college football history.

Tagovailoa, as a freshman at Alabama, took over for Hurts at halftime of the 2017 national championship with the Crimson Tide down, 13-0, to Georgia. He led the comeback and threw the game-winning touchdown in overtime as Alabama won, 26-23.

“I don’t remember much,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday, thinking back to that time. “I just remember being able to come into the national championship game and play. I just had an opportunity to go out there and help our team win, but really, that’s all that I can remember.”

Sunday night, the two will meet for the first time in an NFL regular season game as professionals when Tagovailoa’s Miami Dolphins (5-1) hit the road for Philadelphia to take on the Eagles (5-1) in a prime-time showdown. They also had a joint practice before the 2022 season and preseason game that followed, but Hurts didn’t play in the exhibition.

After winning a title for Alabama, Tagovailoa then supplanted Hurts, the 2016 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, for good as the starter in 2018. He was always viewed as the top draft prospect for 2020 until his college career ended in 2019 with a hip injury and Joe Burrow’s Heisman Trophy-winning season at LSU made him the No. 1 pick.

Hurts, after backing up Tagovailoa in 2018, transferred to Oklahoma for a standout 2019 campaign to end up a second-round selection for the Eagles in the same 2020 draft.

Since, they’ve both found success in the NFL. Hurts led Philadelphia to the Super Bowl last season and was second in MVP voting. He scored his big contract extension, getting $255 million over five seasons.

That’s something Tagovailoa can attain in the 2024 offseason the way he’s going this year. Leading the NFL in passer rating (114.1), passing yards (1,876), yards per attempt (9.5) and tied for the league lead with 14 passing touchdowns, Tagovailoa is the early odds-on favorite for MVP.

“There’s different ways to skin the cat, many different ways,” said Tagovailoa of the two and their alternate career paths in finding professional success since being teammates. “He went down a different road than I did to get to where I’m at, and he had to go down a different road to get to where he’s at.

“I got a lot of respect for Jalen. He’s been a great competitor since I got there to Alabama. He’s been a special player since I’ve been there, and he’s been a special player throughout his entire college career.”

Said Hurts Wednesday to the media in Philadelphia: “It’s been great to see the things he’s been able to do over his career, and hope for continued success.”

Both he and Tagovailoa said Wednesday that they won’t communicate much leading up to the game but may see each other for a quick embrace before and after playing.

“I know where he’s at with his play; he knows where I’m at with my play,” Tagovailoa said. “We’ll probably see each other before the game to wish each other luck, but at the end of the day, we’re both trying to help our teams win.”

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And in order to help his team win, Tagovailoa will have to focus on a stout Eagles defense that, albeit has a thin secondary that’s been hit hard with injury, has bodies it can rotate up front for a consistent, forceful pass rush.

It could remind Tagovailoa of some of those defenses he had to face in college when he was competing with Hurts, but in the NFL, he said: “Every NFL team feels like an SEC defense.”

Tagovailoa stopped short of calling Sunday’s matchup a Super Bowl preview, but it does provide a good measuring stick for where the Dolphins stand in their title aspirations.

“It’s always good when you’re facing a team that went to the Super Bowl where they were just that short of winning it,” he said. “It’s always a test to go up against a team like this, where they understand what it takes, they know the work that needs to be put in to make it there. It definitely is a good opportunity to see where our team stands.”

Tagovailoa, signed through 2024 on his current deal after the Dolphins picked up the fifth-year option on his contract in the past offseason, said at the start of training camp he appreciates what draft class mates Hurts and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert have done for the quarterback market with their contracts — with the Bengals’ Joe Burrow getting his record-setting extension later on.

“It’s really good for the quarterback market,” he said. “It gets me excited, gets me going. But at the same time, they got what they deserve and I’m happy for them.”

In addition to Tagovailoa, the Dolphins have Alabama products in wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, defensive tackles Raekwon Davis and Da’Shawn Hand and guard Lester Cotton.

The Eagles have wide receiver DeVonta Smith, who caught the winning touchdown from Tagovailoa in the 2017 title game, guard Landon Dickerson, offensive lineman Tyler Steen, cornerbacks Josh Jobe and Eli Ricks from Alabama. They also just signed wide receiver great Julio Jones onto their practice squad Tuesday with the expectation he may be elevated to play Sunday.