- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
- Messages
- 16,131
You seem fixated on the fact that Taulia isn't a clone of his brother. That is true. Tua is a true dual threat; Taulia is more of a pocket passer. However, I think you are vastly underrating how good a passer Taulia is.
Hawaii's all time HS passing record is 8201 yards over four seasons (set in 2018 by named Dillon Gabriel, who broke Tuas record of around 8100 yards). Taulia had 6703 after his sophomore season. He was within 1500 yards of the all time passer in state history with TWO full seasons to go. And this wasn't just a overblown number because of weak HS football in Hawaii.
In his junior and senior years playing Alabama HS football, he passed for 7504 yards in just 2 years- the Alabama HS record of 10772 was set by a fella named Jamarcus Russell over a 4 year period. He was also a 64% passer for his career, so I don't know where you get the idea of inaccuracy.
Taulia is basically the textbook Urban Meyer QB- well coached with an understanding of
college offense (June Jones was his OC at Kapolei HS in HI), a TD machine (135 TDs), can improvise when plays break down, cannon arm (beat all QBs at Elite 11 with 65 yard toss), and a hypercompetitive player that hates losing. He's not a NFL QB like Tua, but he is more than capable of being an elite college QB. I think he balls at Maryland (shows that he wants to step out of his brothers shadow), and in a couple years Canes fans will be whining that Miami didn't try hard enough to sign him.
And yes- I would be saying the same thing if his name was Ricky Bobby, not Tagavoila. I am a big believer in Urban Meyers QB philosophy, but most Miami fans are still obsessed with getting NFL-sized QBs to run a pro style offense.
