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Jacksonville Jaguars Trevor Lawrence Shares Remarkable History With Tua Tagovailoa

VaselineSeptember 8, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Jacksonville Jaguars Trevor Lawrence Shares Remarkable History With Tua Tagovailoa

January 7, 2019.

It could have been ages ago. The last calendar year before COVID. The NFL was still playing a 16-game season. The first NIL legislation was still months away from being enacted. “Transfer portal” was not part of the college football lingo.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence was just 19 years old and leading the No. 2 Clemson Tigers into Levi Stadium to play the No. 1, reigning champion Alabama Crimson Tide for the College Football Playoff national championship.

The Tide was led by Tua Tagovailoa of the Miami Dolphins, the hero of the previous year’s national title game. The Tigers and Crimson Tide had found themselves in that position twice in the previous three seasons. Alabama was in its fourth consecutive national championship game.

The first time the Tigers and Crimson Tide met was in the 2016 edition. The Tide won in a thrilling 45-40 game. The following season, it was the Tigers who came out on top, thanks to the heroics of Deshaun Watson in the final game: 35-31. This would be the deciding game.

The tiebreaker wouldn’t come down to the last minute like the previous two matchups. It was the night of Lawrence’s coronation, his star-is-born moment.

Lawrence completed 20 of 32 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns, shredding the Crimson Tide’s star defense (led by first-round pick defensive tackle, now All-Pro Quinnen Williams) en route to a 44-16 win and a perfect 15-0 season.

Notable was the performance of Tigers running back and current Jaguars feature back Travis Etienne Jr., who totaled 86 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.

But a 19-year-old true freshman quarterback dismantling a Nick Saban defense on the biggest stage of all? It was enough to prompt the media to name the next NFL quarterback to watch. One in the vein of John Elway and Andrew Luck.

The next time the two would meet was two years later in London, England. Lawrence was a rookie first-overall pick and Tagovailoa was in his second season. Their second meeting saw them on teams with drastically different success than their college teams.

Lawrence won the rematch 23-20, improving to 2-0 against Tagovailoa. Now, Lawrence and Tagovailoa will meet again on Sunday to kick off the 2024 season. For the third time, they will both play on teams that are on a different site than the first two.

The first time they met, they played for powerhouses. Rematch, cellar dwellers. The third time around, they both play teams with many flaws but a lot of potential. The Jaguars and Dolphins aren’t considered Super Bowl contenders, but they’re both playoff-caliber teams.

Sunday will show whether Lawrence can increase his scoring to 3-0 or whether Tagovailoa can finally beat the Jaguars’ star.

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VaselineSeptember 8, 2024

0 2 minutes read

Vaseline

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