Tua Tagovailoa – August 23, 2023
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Wednesday, August 23, 2023
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel hasn’t said whether the starters will play in the preseason finale. If you don’t get action in the final preseason game, do you feel good about the state of the offense entering Week 1?) – “I don’t think you ever feel good until you get live action games in a real season, real defensive looks, not just normal coverage. You’re getting pressures, you’re getting different looks on third down. I guess we’ll never know until we actually go out there and have to really play. So, we’ll see.”
(We saw you get hit in the game against Houston. Was there some jiu-jitsu? Your head stayed up. Was that it?) – “Yeah, I would say we’ve been practicing it once a week, just in case. Try to build that muscle memory for the falling aspect of it. I think it worked out pretty good. It felt good to get back in there, to get hit, to get tackled a little. It was pretty good.”
(Does it feel natural to you at this point where you’re not thinking, ‘I’ve got to do this as I’m falling?’) – “Not yet. Just continuing to practice it.”
(Does the jiu-jitsu continue as you get closer to the season or did you stop?) – “No, I think I’ll continue it. It’s almost gotten to a point where it has been in the flow of things with how I’ve been doing things throughout the week.”
(How unusual was today with no WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle to throw to? Was that the first practice without both of them and how unusual was it?) – “I think it was the first practice. It’s a little unusual not having your guys out there. But it also gives other guys opportunities to showcase themselves with the first group and then also build chemistry with those guys as well.”
(Understanding the process of throwing a football with your left hand, knowing you do everything right-handed. When that first came about, how challenging was that and how long do you think it took for you to master that craft?) – “I can’t remember how long it took for me to get used to throwing with my left hand. I just got to a point where it felt natural throwing with my left and shooting with my left. But I can’t remember how long it took.”
(Ryan Clark on ESPN had some criticism about you, saying that you didn’t hit the gym in the offseason. You didn’t follow nutritionists’ advice. If he were here, what would you say to him?) – “I mean, he probably knows more about me than I know about myself. I don’t know. Ryan’s been out of the league for some time. I don’t know. It’s a little weird when other people are talking about other people when they’re not that person. It was just a little weird. Like my background is I come from a Samoan family. Respect is everything. But if it does get to a point where – hey, a little easy on that buddy because I think we’re pretty tough-minded people and if we need to scrappy, we can get scrappy too. Just saying.”
(How hard did you work in the offseason?) – “I think we all worked hard throughout the offseason. And I’m not someone to talk about myself the entire time, but it takes a lot. Do you think I wanted to build all this muscle? To some extent, I wanted to be a little lighter. There’s a mixture of things that people don’t understand, that people don’t know about, that are talked about that go behind the scenes. So, I’d appreciate if you kept my name out your mouth. That’s what I’d say.”
(It’s Week 1 for a lot of high school students for football. Do you have any advice or words of wisdom you want to share to them as they prepare for their season?) – “Just prepare. Lean back on your training. I think a thing to remember is Jason Jenkins. He’s someone that had a great impact here at the Dolphins. I’d say I had a pretty good relationship with him throughout my years here with him. I just think this is a time to continue to remember his legacy here as a Miami Dolphin.”
(You guys had a 14-play drive in the game on Saturday that you engineered. Last year you had one of the most explosive offenses. How important is it to you as an offense to strike that balance between being able to score quickly and possess the football?) – “I think it’s very encouraging to see for our offense. Adversity hit quick within the first two plays and we were able to knock that off and just continue to sustain the drive. We converted our third downs and we were able to finish those so I thought it was really good.”
(I know this is a day-by-day league, but the opener is not too far away. I don’t know what the plan is for Saturday, but when does your focus even start to go to the regular season opener?) – “I think our focus starts here with Jacksonville. We’re treating this as if it were a game week, so just preparing the way we would on a normal day-to-day week. Normal down-and-distances, third downs, red area and we’ll see what they give us. So I’m preparing as if I’m going to play.”
(Is that a nice change of pace from practice to be able to get to do that? To go from training camp, training camp to that?) – “Yeah, it feels good to practice against other teams, get other looks. The preparation is a little different when you’re joint practicing, but when you’re able to practice on your own, get looks from the scout team, I think that definitely helps in preparation to play on the weekend.”
(You were asked about obviously the Ryan Clark comments. Do you think some people kind of clout chase for lack of a better word? They make their names off yours a little bit?) – “Make their name off of mine?”
(Yeah, like they look to boost engagement because they know QB Tua Tagovailoa is a guy people want to talk about.) – “I don’t look at myself as someone who chases clout. I stay out of the media as much as I can. I try to live my life as private as I can so if they think it’s chasing clout, buddy, I’m the wrong person. There’s nothing about me that tells you that I’m chasing clout, so I mean, go find Jake Paul or go find Logan. Go find those guys if you want to chase clout. Like those are the guys you want to chase.”
(Has that trend in your career of listening to the outside noise, has that changed at all or evolved at all in the last couple years?) – “No. No. The person who bears all the bad news to me (is the PR staff). (laughter) That’s how I figure things out. So other than that, no one in my family tells me anything. My wife doesn’t watch news outside of regular BBC news, all of those things, what’s going on around the world. Also prayers back home still to the people out there in Maui. There’s still a lot of people missing. There’s still a lot of things that haven’t been – shoutout to the news, but prayers and thoughts out there to the families and a couple of my friends that live out there.”
(How has that process been with the relief efforts, you balancing that with day-to-day? How has that been going?) – “It’s been going good. The thing with that is – I mean, they’ve been down with power for some time, so they don’t even know what’s going on. Like who is all missing, where this thing is, what’s happening. There’s a lot of things going on back there and so we just continue to pray. I do know there’s a lot of people that are out there willing to help and willing to help fund the relief needs for those out there in Maui.”
(When you’re not playing in the preseason games and you’re talking to Head Coach Mike McDaniel, how much do you sort of cherish those moments to see his vision in a game context while you still can? You seem to be having a lot of fun as well when something goes right.) – “Yeah, when everything goes right, it’s a reflection of our offense. It’s a reflection of our team, so when our guys go out there, no matter who it is, you want to see them succeed. You want to see them do well because you know that they’ve been studying, they’ve been understanding what is needed to have been done in this particular defense with our offense and you know they’ve been working really hard. So just going out there and seeing them succeed, it means a lot. It means a lot because guys are working for a job and guys need to beat out people. It’s a competition. That’s what it is here in this league.”
