Tua Tagovailoa

(Justin King/al.com)

Before leaving Nike's The Opening regional event in Oakland in early May, Alabama Class of 2017 quarterback commit Tua Tagovailoa was challenged by Elite 11 head coach Trent Dilfer, a former NFL quarterback who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.

The message from Dilfer?

"I told him, 'Hey, Tua, the way you play the position, even though it looks great, doesn't translate to the next level. It lacks discipline. It doesn't benefit the way you move in the pocket. You can't throw in tight spaces. You have to work on this," Dilfer shared during a Bleacher Report video released Monday.

Dilfer then saw Tagovailoa again at the Elite 11 finals this past weekend in Los Angeles.

Dilfer was so impressed by the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Tagovailoa's improvement that he said during the Bleacher Report video, "I have never seen a kid since I've been doing this change more in two weeks."

The lefty from Hawaii, a four-star prospect and the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the Class of 2017, was 12 of 13 with five touchdown passes during 7-on-7 drills Sunday, according to 247.

Elite 11 is a competition featuring the top high school quarterbacks in the nation. Tagovailoa was named one of this year's Elite 11 quarterbacks Monday. The quarterbacks will compete at The Opening Finals in Oregon in early July.

"He shared with us in our interview that he would go to football practice and then him and his pops would go to the park and set up the cones that we talked about in Oakland to retrain his instincts and play from under center," Dilfer said of Tagovailoa, who plays strictly out of the shotgun at St. Louis High School in Hawaii. "Notice, he played more under center in the 7-on-7 (this past weekend) than he played in the gun, and obviously that's why we're all so impressed and why he has a legitimate chance to be the MVP of the Elite 11."