Taulia Tagovailoa was never expected to be the starting quarterback of a Power Five program. He wasn’t supposed to throw for over 250 passing yards per game on a 61.5% clip across four showings to be named an All-Big Ten honorable mention for Maryland. All of his family pictured the Ewa Beach, Hawaii, native as the one who would be snapping the ball, not the one calling plays.
“I never really thought that Lia would be where he’s at today,” his father, Galu, told Yahoo Sports. “From a center to a quarterback.”
Tagovailoa started playing football at age 7 as a center for his brother, Tua, now the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.