Last year at the SEC Spring Meetings, Alabama coach Nick Saban fielded questions about the quarterback battle between Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts. With Hurts now at Oklahoma and Tagovailoa returning to Tuscaloosa as the Crimson Tide’s star starter, the narrative has changed since last summer. But Saban still wants to see the leader of his offense improve this offseason.

“I think Tua’s got to challenge himself a little bit to get back,” Saban said Tuesday in Destin, Fla. “I think being hurt was an issue for him at the end of the season, and I think that he has to challenge himself to get back into great shape and overcome some of the things that happened toward the end of the year. And I think he should take the perception that he has a lot to prove relative to how we ended the season.

“I think our whole team fits into that category. The other quarterbacks are obviously guys that are developing and have done some good things and obviously have some things that they need to continue to work on. And hopefully, we’ll be able to get them some positive improvement over the summer and fall camp, and then we’ll have an opportunity to get them some kind of experience level early in the season that might benefit them if they need it down the road.”

Tagovailoa put together one of the most prolific seasons for a quarterback in Alabama football history last year and etched his name all over the program’s record book. He now owns the single-season passing touchdowns record with 43 across 15 games, the record for passing yards in a season at 3,966 and his 245 completions is good for fourth in Crimson Tide history.

Tagovailoa led the country with a 199.4 passer efficiency rating and led the SEC with 48 total touchdowns, 43 of which came through the air to lead the SEC and rank second in the nation. He totaled 4,156 yards of total offense, good for second in the SEC and top-10 nationally, despite not playing a majority of the second halves of UA’s games. Through the air, he sported a 69.0 completion percentage on 245-of-355 passing and totaled 3,966 yards and 43 touchdowns with only six interceptions. He added 57 rushes and 190 yards with five scores on the ground.

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa

But injuries plagued his stellar sophomore campaign, as did a 28-point loss to Clemson in the national championship game. Attending the Steve Clarkson Quarterback Retreat this past weekend in Los Angeles, Calif., Tagovailoa was asked what he did to rally his team after the loss.

“Well, it’s kind of hard because, after a game like that, I mean everyone has their heads down,” Tagovailoa told ESPN. “I mean, you as a leader, you just came off a loss, so I think it’s hard in a situation like that because you don’t have anything to look forward to after a game like that because that’s your last game. I think where we kind of started to pick everything up was kind of regrouping for the spring, getting ready as a team for the spring. I think the biggest thing for us is finding leadership on our team. We’re, I think, still trying to find that and whatnot.

“But as far as what we’re trying to do to regroup and rebuild as a team, we’re not trying to worry about what happened last year. We’re just trying to see what we can do to better ourselves and see what we can to do to become successful this year.”

*** Brandon Marcello of AuburnUndercover contributed to this report.

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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