Texas Football: Could the Longhorns have their own Tua Tagovailoa in 2018?

A breakthrough at quarterback would be huge for Texas football with a plethora of options for Tom Herman to choose from in fall camp.

The last time that Texas football played in a national title game was against the team that is now the reigning national champions in the Alabama Crimson Tide. In that game, the starting quarterback for the Longhorns went down with an injury and completely changed the course the rest of the way.

Former star Texas quarterback Colt McCoy led a dominant squad that year out of Austin, but got injured and forced the backup freshman Garrett Gilbert into the game. Texas football was never the same to date after Gilbert was forced into action against Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide.

Alabama took the 2009 BCS National Championship Game from the Horns in decisive fashion with Gilbert under center. Last season, the Crimson Tide almost had a similar situation in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game to what the Horns dealt with nearly a decade ago now.

While the Crimson Tide did not have its starting quarterback get injured in that national title game, two different signal callers would line up under center. Saban started that game against the Georgia Bulldogs last year with sophomore Jalen Hurts, and finished up with freshman Tua Tagovailoa.

If not for a miraculous touchdown pass on 2nd and 26 to win the game in overtime, Tagovailoa might not be the starting quarterback and an anticipated Heisman contender this season. However, he took over in the second half for the Crimson Tide in the national title game and came away with an incredible victory. That is something in which Hurts was not able to accomplish the year before in the national title game versus the Clemson Tigers.

Tagovailoa is among the most hyped up quarterbacks in the nation for the 2018 college football season. In truth, that’s just because of one half of football. The point here is that for a big time program like Alabama or Texas, a massive and miraculous play from a quarterback like that can change the course of a team in just a matter of minutes.

Texas has been searching for the answer under center since McCoy departed the program after running out of eligibility. Whether the answer is the suspected starter for this season, sophomore Sam Ehlinger, remains to be seen. Texas has three other solid quarterback options this year that could all emerge as the solution for at least the next two seasons in Austin.

Does Texas have someone that can pull off anything close to what Tagovailoa did last year for Alabama in a national title game? The answer there is probably not. Texas is a long way from contending for a spot in the College Football Playoff. That doesn’t mean that Texas can’t learn from the immediate turnaround that Tagovailoa gave Alabama and use that to find the best starting quarterback option possible this fall.