The idea began as a quick way for Matt Wyatt to communicate with Mississippi State fans on YouTube.

The former Bulldog quarterback in the late 1990s is now a broadcaster who would make the occasional video breakdown for viewers. When the season ended, the Prattville product had some dead air to fill.

So he branched out. Why not examine each of the 77 passes Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw last season?

The multi-part series is reaching the midpoint with the first three videos already getting more than 10,000 views. Wyatt is going pass by pass using the broadcast television tape. He brings the experience of playing the game and years on the air to break down what could be complicated for the average arm-chair viewer.

A few things stand out from breaking down the first 30 passes of the season.

"What jumps out to me is he's just not a typical freshman from a mental standpoint," Wyatt said in a phone interview with AL.com. "What you don't typically see with first-year players is how quickly he's processing everything and getting the ball out on time to the right place."

Using the telestrator, Wyatt explains what Tagovailoa saw and how he likely processed situations. Admitting he's not in the huddle, nor does he know the exact play call, Wyatt diagnoses what the defense is doing and what the intent of a given play may be.

Thinking of another quarterback who Tagovailoa's game resembles isn't easy for Wyatt. Size and intangibles compare to Seattle Seahawk Russell Wilson, he said.

"But I think mechanically and everything, he's better than Russell Wilson," said Wyatt, who can be heard weekdays from 3-6 p.m. CT statewide in Mississippi and online as part of the SuperTalk Mississippi radio network. "I just see this tight release -- a lightning-quick release. Wilson is a little bit more like a baseball thrower with a little wind up."

Wyatt also said he's not trying to overhype this whole situation. The idea behind the video series is to be pragmatic and neutral.

"Still, everything that I see with him leads me to believe that he's special, now," Wyatt said. "He really is."

That's not to say there's room for improvement. Wyatt pointed to Tagovailoa's first throw of the Ole Miss game that appeared in his third video posted Monday. To him, it looked like the young passer tried to force a deeper pass when there was a safer option open.

Perhaps there were a few times Wyatt saw Tagovailoa trying to fit more risky throws in tighter windows. That's common with all young quarterbacks. Wyatt notes he's seen less of it with Tagovailoa.

It was also clear to Wyatt that Alabama wasn't just given him token playing time. He saw purpose in what they ran with the rookie from Hawaii.

"The ball is coming out the moment the coaches want when they call the play," Wyatt said. "That doesn't happen a lot with that consistency with true freshmen."

One of the plays that stood out to Wyatt wasn't even a completion. A third-and-two play at the Ole Miss 8-yard line was noteworthy for how fast Tagovailoa decided to throw the pass away when there was a protection bust and indecision in the route.

"It's not something that anybody pays any attention to," Wyatt said. "But what I see is a true freshman who is processing things so quickly and has the right instinct. ... There are some freshmen who are going to throw it at one of the receivers and get it picked off, just freak out and throw it at them. Most freshmen are going to peal out of there and start running around trying to make a play and get sacked. He just flicks it out of the back of the end zone like a fifth-year senior would do and run the next play."

The next snap was an 8-yard touchdown to Henry Ruggs III.

Wyatt saw Tagovailoa make the correct read on a play with three options in the same neighborhood. The spinning touchdown pass at Vanderbilt will be one of the highlights they show of Tagovailoa when he's drafted, Wyatt predicts.

Of course, the Tagovailoa vs. Jalen Hurts quarterback situation will be a dominant storyline throughout the offseason. Hurts started the past two seasons, though Tagovailoa famously saved the national-title game win over Georgia in January.

What's different between the games of Hurts and Tagovailoa?

"I see Hurts as a guy who, maybe more often, needed to see the receiver open or maybe had some less-complicated reads built into his pass game at times," Wyatt said. "I mean, it was certainly big-time effective but it seemed like a lot more often, you'd see him read things down the field and there was that half second or so of (Hurts) needing to see the receiver open and then turn the ball loose. Whereas, what I see with Tua was, at his age, anticipating things a little more. The ball is just a half second coming out on time."

Hurts threw 255 passes to Tagovailoa's 77. The sophomore completed 60.4 percent of his attempts compared to the freshman's 63.6. Until the championship game, most of Tagovailoa's playing time came after the outcome of lopsided games had been determined. His 14-for-24, three-touchdown national title game is still down the road for Wyatt's video series, though he did an 11-minute film study of the championship game that's already been seen 60,000-plus times.

"I'm kind of intrigued to see when I start looking at the rest of his season," Wyatt said. "This is kind of a pet project of mine just because it's fun."

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.