It feels like Taulia Tagovailoa has been at Maryland for 30 years, but the four-time Penn State opponent has entered the transfer portal.
Per Matt Zenitz and Chris Hummer of 247Sports, Tagovailoa has hit the portal after four seasons in College Park.
247 also reported that, because Tagovailoa played in five games in 2019 at Alabama and burned his redshirt, he will need to seek a waiver.
Taulia Tagovaiola will seek a waiver for a sixth season of college football, as he burned a redshirt in 2019 playing in 5 games for Alabama — twice playing a total of 2 snaps.
One QB-needy school tells @chris_hummer it believed a waiver to be "unlikely."… pic.twitter.com/8NtMkMQan5
— 247Sports (@247Sports) January 5, 2024
Maryland star QB Taulia Tagovailoa has entered the transfer portal, @chris_hummer and I have learned for @247sports.https://t.co/6Cw7NKmScJ pic.twitter.com/xqFT7eyupr
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 5, 2024
Not a lot of Maryland QBs have beaten Penn State, and Tagovailoa is one of just three.
In a 35-19 Maryland win before a largely-empty Beaver Stadium in November 2020, Tagovailoa went 18-for-26 with 282 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. But over Tagovailoa’s next three starts against Penn State, Maryland went 0-3 and got outscored 112-29. Nonetheless, Tagovailoa accomplished a lot in his time at Maryland, and Penn State coach James Franklin took notice.
“Really good player,” Franklin said ahead of last seasons Penn State-Maryland game in College Park. “Statistically, he’s number one in every category at the University of Maryland, and they’ve had some good quarterbacks all the way back to Boomer Esiason and Frank Reich and a ton of guys that have played there.”
“The thing that makes him challenging is not only decision-making as a passer and the weapons they have around them, but then also his athleticism, his quickness and his ability to improvise,” Franklin said. “But whenever you’ve got a guy that’s played as much football as he has, that’s why I think there was so much confidence with [coach Mike Locksley] and those guys coming into the season and why they’re confident now. Because they got a veteran, experienced, proven quarterback.”
Penn State is scheduled to take on Maryland Nov. 30 at Beaver Stadium on Senior Day, and we’ll see if Maryland gets its next QB out of the transfer portal. It would be different watching somebody other that Tagovailoa play QB for the Terps.
