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Tua Tagovailoa healthiest he’s felt since arriving at Alabama

By Nicholas Perlich

SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates his first quarter touchdown throw against the Clemson Tigers in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - JANUARY 07: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates his first quarter touchdown throw against the Clemson Tigers in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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Tua Tagovailoa and Alabama were dominant all season until ankle and hamstring injuries hampered the star quarterback’s play. Tagovailoa has worked hard this summer to avoid the injury bug in 2019.

Last year, the Alabama Crimson Tide looked like the most dominant team in football. They were winning every game by 20+ points throughout the regular season. Kinks in the armor started to show at the end of the season, right around the time that star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa began dealing with nagging ankle and hamstring injuries.

Tagovailoa has worked hard over the summer months to improve his health and body to hopefully avoid those same injury problems in the upcoming season.

The program led by his father, Galu, included weight lifting, sprints, and throwing sessions along with a very strict diet. His diet is so strict, in fact, that his father would take his key so Tua and his younger brother, Tualia (a true freshman quarterback for Alabama), couldn’t make late-night runs for fast food.

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The strict diet and hard work have paid off as Tua showed up to SEC media days at a svelte 215 pounds. According to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated, Tagovailoa is actually three pounds under his suggested playing weight.

After losing the weight and adjusting his training program to help avoid injuries, Tagovailoa said this is the healthiest he has felt since arriving at Alabama. If that is true and he can avoid injury throughout the entire 2019 season, Alabama should be the favorites for the National Championship once again, and Tagovailoa will be right in the thick of the Heisman race as well as the conversation for the top overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

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