Tua: ‘I’m pulling for the SEC’ Monday night

Former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa called the Bobby Bowden Award “something bigger than football” Friday.

Tagovailoa received the award at a luncheon Friday, which takes more than on-field performance into perspective – it includes faith, community service and academics, to name a few.

“The kind of coach he was, how he goes about doing things with his life … I guess this award has probably meant the most to me,” Tagovailoa said prior to the event at the Airport Hilton, “because it’s a reflection of who my parents are, how we grew up, and just our belief system.”

Faith played a big part in Tagovailoa’s decision earlier this week to declare for the 2020 NFL Draft.

“We’ve been praying as a family a lot,” he said, “and that was our decision.”

Tagovailoa is less than eight weeks removed from surgery on his hip, which ended his season Nov. 16 at Mississippi State.

“I never thought I’d be doing this good as far as walking and weight-bearing here and there,” he said. “It’s also a testament to our faith.”

As a result, Tagovailoa missed the final three games of the season, including a loss to Auburn in the regular-season finale that took the Tide out of contention for the College Football Playoff.

“It was very difficult,” he said. “As a competitor, you always want to go out and compete and put your team in the best position to become successful. The best way I could have done that was from the sideline.”

Tagovailoa is more than familiar with the two combatants in Monday night’s CFP National Championship in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, having faced both LSU and Clemson in his career. He was very complimentary of both offenses and both defensive schemes.

“It’ll be a tough game,” he said, “but I’m pulling for the SEC.”