Taulia Tagovailoa is Already Better than his Brother

    The University of Maryland's football team just started their third game of the 2021 season a few minutes before I started writing this. With one Covid shortened season under his belt, two games this season, and only a few series in game three, I'm ready to make a bold, but accurate claim.

    Taulia Tagovailoa is a significantly better quarterback than his brother, Tua.

    Seems crazy on the surface right? Tua won a national title at Alabama, was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the NFL, and is the starter for the 'Phins to begin this season. He had all sorts of highlight reel plays in college, only derailed by a pretty tough injury. Had Tua not been injured, many believed he would've been the top draft pick of his class.

    So what makes Taulia better? It's really easy once you take a look at it. He is absolutely ballin despite a lack of talent around him*.

    *Ok, quick disclaimer, Maryland has two phenomenal Wide Receivers in Dontay Demus Jr. and Rakim Jarrett. The Terps are slowly becoming WR-U, but that's a post for another day.

    The most important, but often overlooked part to an offense is its line. Alabama wakes up and puts offensive lineman in the NFL, even before the Tua era; and they'll continue to do that long after the fact too. The last Terrapin to be drafted in the NFL came in 2010 when the recently relocated Oakland Raiders took Bruce Campbell... who I couldn't pick out of a lineup even if you told me who he was. So protection wise its apparent that Taulia isn't going to have a lot of security in the pocket.

    Last year, the Terrapins had a pretty decent running game, led by Jake Funk, but Funk graduated, went to the NFL, and Maryland's running game has looked less than stellar to start the 2021 season. So it should be easy to make a connection that a lot more will fall on 'Lia's shoulders if they can't run the ball effectively. But wait, Lia is the Terps running game! That's right, unlike his mostly immobile brother, Taulia is a legitimate threat to run the ball, with the coaching staff designing several plays for him to do just that.

    So what about the throwing game? That is the calling card of the quarterback position after all. Tua was known for being deadly accurate while at Alabama... but most of his targets were running butt naked open. As much as I love Demus Jr. and Jarrett, they aren't schemed open as well as Alabama's receivers have been in years past. Yet Taulia gets them the ball in such a variety of ways that it would be sacrilegious if they do not get drafted and have productive careers at the next level.

    So to wrap this in a nice little bow, Taulia is surrounded by significantly inferior talent than his older brother had at Alabama, and yet pulls off performances above what many would expect from him. I'm not sure if Maryland will win this game against Illinois, it is the usual time of the year for the Terps to drop a total dud after all. Whether they win or lose, Terrapin fans should be beyond happy that they have the better Tagovailoa brother on campus.