Alabama Football’s Tua Tagovailoa Named National Player of the Year by The Sporting News
Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been named the national player of the year by The Sporting News, the outlet announced Monday.
Tagovailoa has turned in a record-setting season in his first year as the Tide’s starting quarterback while leading UA to its 27th Southeastern Conference championship and fifth straight College Football Playoff appearance. His list of honors this season already includes the Maxwell and Walter Camp Player of the Year awards as well as SEC Offensive Player of the Year honors and first team All-America recognition from Walter Camp.
The sophomore has thrown for 3,353 yards and a school-record 37 touchdowns with just four interceptions on 199-of-294 passing (67.7 percent) this season. He has passed for 300 or more yards an Alabama-record five times in 2018 and has five games with four or more touchdown passes, which is also a UA single-season record. Tagovailoa’s 42 combined passing and rushing touchdowns (37/5) is a Crimson Tide season touchdown responsibility record. He is also 134 yards shy of the school record for passing yardage in a season.
Under Tagovailoa’s direction, the Alabama offense has set school records for total offensive yards (6,859), passing yards (4,231) and points scored (623) this season and is on pace to shatter the UA per-game average in all three categories.