Steve Sarkisian was one of the first college football coaches to begin to pursue Tua Tagovailoa, but didn’t recruit the quarterback to Southern Cal. Later, Sarkisian caught up to Tagovailoa at Alabama for a few weeks, but Sarkisian left while Tagovailoa threw a national championship winning pass in 2017 and led the Crimson Tide to the 2018 Southeastern Conference championship and a berth in the national title game.

Now they are united at Alabama again, Sark (as he is known) as Bama’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Tua (as he is known) as a top candidate for the Heisman Trophy beginning his junior season for the Tide.

Sarkisian is not surprised at Tua’s achievements, which last season included being named national player of the year by Walter Camp, Maxwell, Sporting News, and the American Football Coaches of America and finishing second for the Heisman. He was SEC Offensive Player of the Year as he set Alabama records for touchdown passes (43) and yards passing (3,966) and had the nation’s best quarterback rating (199.4). He was 245-355 passing with only six interceptions.

Sark said he remembers to this day watching Tua throw as a 10th grader in Hawaii on “a really windy, windy day” as a 10th grader. “He was cutting the wind. I mean it was extremely accurate. It stood out to me and still does to this day.”

Sarkisian came to Alabama in early 2016 as an analyst after having been released as head coach at Southern Cal following the 2015 season. Following Alabama’s College Football Playoff win over Washington (where Sark had been head coach 2009-13), Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach Lane Kiffin left the Tide to assume the head coaching position at Florida Atlantic. Sarkisian, who had already been ticketed to replace Kiffin in 2017, took over for the championship game.

Steve Sarkisian back at Alabama

However, before he could work a full season in Tuscaloosa, he went to the Atlanta Falcons as offensive coordinator for the past two years. He returned to Tuscaloosa this year following Mike Locksley’s departure from Bama to be head coach at Maryland.

Sarkisian said that his relationship with Tua began when he was at USC and Tua camped there. “I offered him a scholarship pretty early in his career in high school,” Sark said. “So we had started that relationship.”

There was a brief reconnection in the month or so between Sark coaching Bama in the national championship game and leaving for Atlanta because Tua was a mid-year entrant as a freshman in January, 2017. It was, Sarkisian said, a chance to “reconnect and reestablish that relationship.

“I had a long-standing relationship with him and his family, so I think it made for a little easier transition at that time and even now, just having that relationship of knowing the family, being in their home in Hawaii in home visits. I just think all-in-all, for Tua and for me, that previous relationship that we had has been very helpful in the transition now with a new coordinator, myself, coming in for this year.”

Although Sarkisian was not actively involved in Tagovailoa’s recruitment to Alabama, he gave a snapshot of the process. “I give Coach Saban a lot of credit,” he sai,d. “He is not one who chases stars by any means, by how many stars a guy has determines how good he is. We pride ourselves in doing our own evaluations, trusting our evaluations, the process, and trying to find the best players that fit Alabama and what it entails to play at Alabama. I think when you go back and look at that class – Tua, the wide receivers in Jerry Juedy and Henry Ruggs and DeVonta Smith; Najee Harris and Brian Robinson the running backs; the offensive linemen you’ve seen what Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills have done, and those types of guys.

“I think all-in-all that class was evaluated really well. We thought they could come in and contribute and at that point then it’s the development of the player. That’s something we talk about here quite a bit – developing the players on and off the field. I think you have to give the players credit too, their work ethic, their commitment to working. They got some opportunities to play early in their careers. I think they gook advantage of it and have continued to grow year to year.”

As for Tagovailoa, Sark said, “After watching him play college football, studying the tape, being attentive in spring ball. He’s a very instintive player. He has a natural feel for passing the football and the passing game. Just on that note, I think those two things stand out to me – hiability to stay accurate regardless of the elements and his quick release, and then the instincts he plays with.”

There has been off-season discussion of Tagovailoa’s next step in development being improvement in full field reads, looking at all the receiving targets. Tide Head Coach Nick Saban refers to it as patience.

Sarkisian said, “Every year after the season you try to evaluate big picture, how you can improve as a football team, and us, specifically, offensively. We really felt if we could continue to grow in that area of full progression reads…our feeling is the more things you do well, the harder you are to defend. We thought that was an area we thought we could improve in.

“I think Tua has bought into that. He’s worked extemely hard. He’s shown drastic improvement. I think the receivers see it as well.

“So now it’s hard to play the play action pass because you’re running the football well. We’re committed to running the ball. You’re defending the RPOs (run-pass options). You’re defending the drop back pass scheme of full progression. I think one of the misnomers is we’re shifting to a drop back team. No. We’re trying to add to an offense that was very prolific a year ago and how can we be more prolific and stay ahead of defenses and what they are trying to stop.”