QB Taulia Tagovailoa joins portal seeking 6th year

Former Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa has entered the NCAA transfer portal, and he told ESPN in a phone interview on Friday that he filed for a reinstatement waiver with the NCAA on Thursday for a sixth year of eligibility.

Tagovailoa played five seasons, including his freshman year at Alabama in 2019. He went on to become the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader in his subsequent four seasons at Maryland, throwing for 11,256 yards. The 2020 season doesn’t count toward eligibility because of rules that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have left Tagovailoa another year if he’d redshirted in 2019.

The waiver request is centered on Tagovailoa playing in five games as the third-string quarterback at Alabama in 2019, playing just two snaps against Duke and another two at Mississippi State. He played 22 snaps the final week at Western Carolina. The maximum threshold for redshirting is playing in four games.

Tagovailoa said in a phone interview that the waiver request for adding back the year of eligibility stems from the circumstances around two games in which he played a total of four snaps. He entered during the final snaps of a 38-7 blowout at Mississippi State as a way to honor his brother, Tua Tagovailoa, who suffered a severe hip injury during the game.

Maryland filed the waiver on behalf of Tagovailoa on Thursday. He’s unsure of the status, but said that Alabama has been very supportive of him in the process and there’s no hard feelings toward the coaching staff for the decision.

“It’s with the NCAA right now,” he said. “We’re all just a waiting game on seeing if it gets approved or not.”

There’s no indication on a timeline. He said he’s exploring returning to college to also help better his draft stock. He’s projected as a Day 3 pick, and hopes another year could help him.

He has 77 career touchdown passes, one of which came during that 2019 season at Alabama. He completed more than 66% of his passes during his final three seasons at Maryland.

“Just to better my draft stock,” he said of his goals on the field. “I think with another opportunity and another year of college, I can raise that to a Day 1. Obviously, that’s the goal. I have the experience to get better. I’ve seen the defenses before.”

When asked what he’d say to the NCAA, Tagovailoa responded that he wouldn’t want four snaps — two at the end of two different blowouts — to “prevent me from playing another year of college football while beginning coursework for my master’s degree.”