When Mike McDaniel was named the Dolphins head coach on Feb. 6, he didn’t waste any time putting his trust and confidence in Tua Tagovailoa as Miami’s starting quarterback.
In fact, shortly after accepting the job, McDaniel told Tagovailoa in a FaceTime call that he had the “ambition to be great” and that it was his job to bring the “greatness” out of the third-year quarterback. So far, their partnership has paid dividends for the Dolphins.
Currently, Miami (8-3) sits in first place in the AFC East, and Tagovailoa is a big reason why. The Dolphins signal-caller has recorded 2,564 passing yards with 19 touchdown passes and just three interceptions in nine games this season, putting himself in the NFL MVP conversation. However, McDaniel recently reminded his quarterback that he has come a very long way in his football growth. During the Dolphins’ win over the Texans on Sunday, McDaniel teased his quarterback about his lack of technique as a high school athlete.
“I woke up at like 3 a.m., and I couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I was thinking about when you randomly hit me up that you were YouTubing me and so then I YouTubed you and saw this Trent Dilfer thing showing all this high school s— from you, and bro, your technique was TRASH,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa couldn’t do anything but laugh at McDaniel’s observation and asked what his coach was referring to.
“No rhythm? No timing? Is that what you are talking about?” Tagovailoa asked.
It’s safe to say the 24-year-old Tagovailoa has experienced a lot of growth from his days at Saint Louis School in Honolulu to playing three years under Nick Saban at Alabama and a substantial amount of growth in his third season in the NFL under McDaniel.
Last season, Tagovailoa finished the season throwing for 2,653 yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while going 7-5 in the 12 games he started.
