ORLANDO, Fla. – The University of Alabama’s football program doesn’t rebuild. It simply reloads.
Tua Tagovailoa threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third in his first college start, helping the top-ranked Crimson Tide open the season with a 51-14 rout of Louisville in the Camping World Kickoff on Saturday night.
Essentially ending the debate – at least for now – about whether he or Jalen Hurts should be the Crimson Tide’s No. 1 quarterback, Tagovailoa scored on a 9-yard run while also completing 12 of 16 passes for 227 yards without an interception. Hurts was 26-2 the past two seasons as the starter, but Tagovailoa took over in the second half of last season’s national championship game to lead Alabama to a double-overtime win against Georgia.
“I thought there were a lot of things we did well, and I also think there are a lot of things we need to fix,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
“The effort of our players, the intensity that they played well, they executed very well on a lot of plays. I’m really proud of the way they came out and played and executed in the game. But I also think it’s pretty obvious we need to do a lot of things better.”