GETTY IMAGE

Taulia Tagovailoa spent the majority of his college football career at Maryland after initially following his older brother Tua to Alabama, and it would appear the family’s ties to the Crimson Tide played a role in the Terrapins retaining a quarterback who had the chance to cash in on a sizeable payday at Auburn.

In 2019,  Taulia Tagovailoa arrived in Tuscaloosa as a freshman for what would turn out to be his only season as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide a couple of years after Tua Tagovailoa ensured he’d never have to pay for a drink in the state for the rest of his life due to his second half heroics against Georgia in the national championship game that capped off the 2017 campaign.

Taulia didn’t see much playing time after ending up third on the QB depth chart behind Tua and Mac Jones, and after realizing he’d probably be spending his sophomore year backing up his brother’s successor, he decided to take his talents to the University of Maryland.

Tagovailoa ultimately spent four years with the Terrapins and set the Big Ten record for all-time passing yards during his final college season in 2023—a last hurrah that came after he flirted with the idea of declaring for the 2022 NFL Draft and reportedly turned down a $1.5 million NIL deal that Auburn reportedly used in an unsuccessful attempt to poach him.

That second saga was the focus of an excerpt from the upcoming book The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos that CBS Sports shared on Thursday, which shed some light on what went down behind the scenes when Auburn attempted to lure him back to the SEC.

The book says Galu Tagovailoa, the patriarch of the family, urged Taulia to accept the offer from the Tigers before Tua stepped in to send a stern message to his brother about the notion of joining the Crimson Tide’s fiercest rival, saying, “We’re an Alabama family. You’re not going to Auburn.”

As the book notes, Maryland coach Mike Locksley and athletic director Damon Evans scrambled to drum up a six-figure NIL package that helped keep Tagovailoa at the school for his final season, but they probably owe Tua a debt of gratitude for the role he played in the situation.