Ex-Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa in portal, seeks 6th year - ESPN

Former Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa has entered the NCAA transfer portal, and he told ESPN in a phone interview on Friday that he filed for a re-instatement waiver with the NCAA on Thursday for a sixth year of eligibility.

Tagovailoa played five seasons, including his freshman year at Alabama in 2019. He went on to become the Big Ten's all-time passing leader in the subsequent four years at Maryland, throwing for 11,256 yards. The 2020 season doesn't count toward eligibility because of rules that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have left Tagovailoa another year if he'd redshirted in 2019.

The waiver request is centered around Tagovailoa playing in five games as the third-string quarterback at Alabama in 2019, playing just two snaps against Duke and another two at Mississippi State. He played 22 snaps the final week at Western Carolina. The maximum threshold for redshirting is playing in four games.

Tagovailoa said in a phone interview that the waiver request for adding back the year of eligibility stems from the circumstances around two games in which he played a total of four snaps. He entered during the final snaps of a 38-7 blowout at Mississippi State as a way to honor his brother, Tua Tagovailoa, who suffered a severe hip injury during the game.

Maryland filed the waiver on behalf of Tagovailoa on Thursday. He's unsure of the status, but said that Alabama has been very supportive of him in the process and there's no hard feelings toward the coaching staff for the decision.

«It's with the NCAA right now,» he said. «We're all just a waiting game on seeing if it gets approved or not.»

There's no indication on a timeline. He said he's exploring returning to college to also help better his