“Prior to committing to Alabama, it looked like it was a foregone conclusion that Tagovailoa was going to play for the Trojans. One of the main reasons for that was because of his relationship with Sarkisian.
“Sarkisian was the only head coach — when he was at USC — that flew to Hawaii to watch Tua throw and on the spot said we want to offer you,” Galu Tagovailoa, Tua’s father, told SEC Country. “We went up to the camp they had at USC, and Sarkisian was just blown away by Tua. We’ve built a really good relationship with him.
“If Sarkisian was still at USC, I think we would have committed to USC. That’s how good of a relationship we have with him.”
Sarkisian ultimately was dismissed from USC as he battled alcohol problems. Clay Helton took over for Sarkisian, but at the time of the latter’s firing, Tagovailoa slowly began to take a hard look at other schools because it was unclear to the Tagovailoas if Helton was going to be there long term.”
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