According to multiple reports, former Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa’s efforts to play a sixth season of college football are over. Tagovailoa will enter the 2024 NFL Draft after his waiver request for a sixth year of eligibility was denied by the NCAA.
Tagovailoa, Maryland’s longtime starter, entered the transfer portal to explore the possibility of playing at another school in 2024 had he been able to play college football for another season. He had petitioned the NCAA for a sixth year after he appeared in five games as a freshman at Alabama (college football players are allowed to appear in up to four games and still keep their redshirt). Tagovailoa surpassed that number by one in 2019 as he made five appearances and threw passes in three games, with two of those games coming after his brother, Tua, had suffered a season-ending hip injury.
Taulia’s fourth game came when he entered for the final two snaps of Alabama’s blowout win over Mississippi State (Tua suffered the hip injury earlier in that game). One week later Taulia played in his fifth game of the season against FCS Western Carolina, and threw two passes. He could have played a sixth season of college football without a waiver had he not appeared in that game, thanks to the extra season of eligibility all players received because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tua left for the NFL following the 2019 season, and Taulia transferred to Maryland where he was 964-of-1,436 passing for 11,356 yards and 77 TD passes to 37 interceptions in four years with the Terrapins. He leaves College Park as the Terrapins’ all-time leading passer and became the Big Ten’s career leader in passing yards in November.
Editorial credit: Zach Chew / Shutterstock.com