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While his brother Tua gets all the headlines and plaudits, Taulia Tagovailoa is no slouch of his own when it comes to playing the quarterback position.
The senior signal caller initially committed to Alabama in hopes of following in his brother’s footsteps, but later followed offensive coordinator Mike Locksley to Maryland when he became the Terrapins head coach.
Tagovailoa torched the Big Ten in 2021 and 2022 as the Terps starter. He’s thrown for 6,686 yards, 44 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in that time frame.
And his performances haven’t gone unnoticed.
Tagovailoa claims he was offered $1.5 million from an SEC school to transfer to their program this offseason. Though he did not name the school.
“Crazy money,” Tagovailoa said Thursday at Big Ten media day when asked about what he’s been offered.
But Tagovailoa claims that his brother’s success, and subsequent wealth, made his decision to stay at Maryland a little easier.
“It can be eye-opening, but I think for my situation — if I was in a different situation where maybe I didn’t have a brother in the NFL or maybe my parents, it’d be a different situation,” Tagovailoa said.
Maryland coach Mike Locksley said that he was worried Tagovailoa would leave the program.
“I knocked on wood before the spring game and many of ya’ll didn’t understand what I was saying,” Locksley said. “You hear the rumors, you know some of the things are going on out there behind the scenes. No, I was not comfortable until I saw him run out after that portal window closed up. But even then, a guy that’s a graduate can still leave and go play somewhere. I haven’t had a lot of nights of great sleep.”
Thankfully for Locksley, his star QB stayed put. Now whether or not that’s enough to lift Maryland up a loaded Big Ten East is yet to be seen.