Super Bowl-winning quarterback and Elite 11 head coach Trent Dilfer recently appeared on a Tuscaloosa radio show and proclaimed one of Alabama’s current scholarship quarterbacks is a more gifted passer than a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time NFL MVP.

Rising sophomore Jalen Hurts is the incumbent starter behind center for the Crimson Tide and has shown progress in the passing game this spring. But recently-enrolled Tua Tagovailoa has generated some buzz after a strong start to his college career and impressive outing in the first scrimmage.

And Dilfer added to that buzz during an appearance on Tide 102.9 FM’s The Game.

“I’d say he’s probably the most gifted passer I’ve seen at this age,” Dilfer said of Tagovailoa. “I worked out with Aaron Rodgers a lot when he was at Cal. Tua throws it better than Aaron Rodgers threw it as a sophomore at Cal-Berkeley. That’s not an exaggeration.”

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A five-star recruit out of Honolulu, Hawaii, Tagovailoa has participated in 11 practices, including one scrimmage since leaving his island home in January. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound freshman was the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback and 32nd-best overall prospect in the 2017 cycle, per the 247Sports Composite.

Although he has spent the entirety of the spring behind Hurts, Dilfer has not seen his former Elite 11 pupil since enrolling, but he clearly believes in Tagovailoa’s abilities as a passer.

“He’s the most coachable kid that I’ve ever coached,” Dilfer said. “He was a trainwreck when I first saw him in May of last year, fundamentally. I actually jumped him a little bit. I gave him some stuff I wanted to see changed.

“When I saw him about three weeks later, he had made the biggest transformation I’d ever seen a quarterback make in a short amount of time, so I have a ton of confidence in the kid.”

Tagovailoa has been the second quarterback through drills and worked behind the second-team offensive line during last Saturday’s scrimmage. He also got some work with the ones in his first action in Bryant-Denny Stadium. But Nick Saban has openly said Hurts is the starter and he is preparing Tagovailoa and fellow freshman Mac Jones as backups for the upcoming season.

But it’s not a bad thing to have a pair of talented freshmen as second-string signal callers.

“Both of them have the talent,” rising junior safety Ronnie Harrison said earlier this spring. “Mac and Tua, they both have great arms. They can throw great balls, deep balls and stuff like that. It’s all a learning curve with a new OC. Everybody has to get up to his speed and learn everything.”

And even though it will likely take regression or injury from Hurts for Tagovailoa to snag the starting spot, Dilfer stands firm in his confidence and praise for the Alabama freshman.

“I think Tua has a chance to be an exceptional football player,” Dilfer said. “Not good. Not great. Exceptional. A transformational-type player. Doesn’t mean he’s gonna be. There’s a lot of things that happen when you go to college.”

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