Taulia Tagovailoa has to petition NCAA for extra year of eligibility

Taulia Tagovailoa looks up. Photo Credit: Mickey Welsh/Advertiser via USA TODAY NETWORK

Taulia Tagovailoa has entered the transfer portal, but he’s going to need some help in order to play next season.

Tagovailoa is petioning the NCAA to receive a waiver to play in 2024. Tagovailoa has already played five seasons and exhausted his eligibility. However, he is hoping that the NCAA will credit him with a redshirt year for 2019 so that he can play one more season.

In 2019, Tagovailoa was a freshman at Alabama. He was the Crimson Tide’s third-string quarterback that season and played behind his brother, Tua, and Mac Jones.

Taulia appeared in five games that season, though he only recorded stats in three of those games. In the Tide’s 38-7 win over Mississippi State that year, Taulia played in the final two snaps just to honor his brother Tua, who had suffered a hip injury in the game.

Taulia says he wouldn’t have played that game had he realized it would have cost him a full season of eligibility.

“Honestly, if I could do it again, hopefully my brother doesn’t get injured and I’m not in that emotional state where I want to play in the game. If I got to do it over again, I wouldn’t have played in the game. Coach asked me if I wanted to go in. Of course I wanted to go in and play for my brother. And that’s what happened,” Taulia told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1743381189166039257

Taulia would be a desirable quarterback should he receive a waiver. He has passed for 11,256 passing yards since joining Maryland, including 3,377 this season. He passed for 25 touchdowns and rushed for five this season.

Tagovailoa was offered big money last year to transfer. He would stand to make big money in 2024 if he is granted eligibility.