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“To the Polynesian community, I hope and pray this is only the beginning. Young Polynesian athletes everywhere, you can take this as motivation and dream big and strive for greatness.” — Marcus Mariota, accepting the 2014 Heisman Trophy
Barely three years after Marcus Mariota stood on the Heisman Trophy stage in New York and emotionally exhorted Polynesian athletes to reach for greatness, his prayer and hopes have been answered in the emergence of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa, who was a sophomore at Mariota’s alma mater, Saint Louis School, at the time of the Heisman presentation, took the challenge of his mentor and has run — and passed — with it, coming off the bench in the second half to rally Alabama from a 13-0 deficit to the College Football Playoff national championship Monday night in Atlanta with a 26-23 overtime victory over Georgia.
“It’s nice to see someone like him continue to carry the torch from back home,” Mariota said Tuesday at a Nashville, Tenn., news conference.
Capping his freshman season at the University of Alabama, Tagovailoa, who is of Samoan ancestry, is already one up on Mariota with a national championship. Mariota led Oregon to the CFP national title game in 2015 but was unable to guide the Ducks past Ohio State.
Tagovailoa, who saw limited playing time in Alabama’s games this season and did not participate in three of the previous four contests, including the Sugar Bowl CFP semifinal the week before, is now the presumptive starter for the Crimson Tide going forward, figuring to supplant two-year starter Jalen Hurts, from whom he took over at halftime.
Such was Tagovailoa’s poise, on-the-field acumen and combination of passing and running prowess that Hurts, a less talented passer who will be a junior, is seen as likely to change positions if he chooses to remain at Alabama.
Tagovailoa, who enrolled early at Alabama in January 2017 to get a leg up in preparation for the season, had reportedly been especially impressive in postseason practices to the point that former Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said in a radio interview Tuesday that he might have transferred if he continued to sit on the bench.
Kiffin, who is head coach at Florida Atlantic, told the Dan Patrick Show, “If this second half doesn’t flip like this, and Alabama is moving the ball and doesn’t change (quarterbacks), people that really know what’s going on would tell you that Tua was leaving. Because Tua thought that he should be the starting quarterback and had outperformed (Hurts) in practice, and coach (Nick Saban) never gave him an opportunity.”
Kiffin added, “How this second half played out changes college football, because Tua is going to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football. He plays just like Steve Young.”
“The Kid” or, simply, “Tua” — as national commentators, who prefer not to wrestle with the pronunciation of his last name, have taken to calling him — interjected himself squarely into the discussion for the Heisman Trophy for 2018 and beyond.
It is an arrival that Mariota presciently saw signs of in 2014, even telling reporters at a pre-Heisman luncheon, “Keep an eye on this kid, Tua Tagovailoa, a left-hander, from my old high school.”
Hours later Mariota, in a voice choked with emotion on ESPN, challenged youngsters to follow in his footsteps.
“Having others follow (his path)” was very important to Marcus, said his mother, Alana Deppe-Mariota, who acknowledged “flashing back a lot” on his 2014 Heisman speech while watching Tagovailoa’s exploits Monday night. “We were very happy for him and his family.”
Marcus, who was awakened in his Nashville condo when Tagovailoa was announced as the second-half starter Monday night, cheered the comeback and sent congratulations. “I sent him a text. He’s probably … I mean, he probably had 200 or 300 text messages,” Mariota told reporters. “He’s a special kid. I’m sure you guys saw his interview after the game. That’s who he is.”
Though Mariota took Tagovailoa under his wing from their first meeting at Vince Passas’ quarterback camp, talking to him about football and life, “he’s done it all himself,” Mariota said. “I think where he gets his humility is from his family. How he carries himself is really from where we grew up.”
With Mililani High graduate McKenzie Milton leading the University of Central Florida to major college football’s only unbeaten (13-0) record this season, Jordan Ta’amu of Pearl City guiding the University of Mississippi and, now, Tagovailoa’s ascendance, “it is pretty amazing the number of quarterbacks in a (small) state like Hawaii that are doing so well nationally right now,” Deppe-Mariota said.
Consider it a prayer and hopes answered.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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