Tua Tagovailoa helped prevent his brother from transferring to Auburn

When Alabama fans think of the name Tua Tagovailoa, there's many things that instantly come to mind: his performance in the second half of the national championship against Georgia, his record-shattering career, and even his maturity. Tua provided lots of memorable moments and games for Alabama fans to cherish forever.

Something that I personally remember a lot was the fact that the Alabama quarterback room had two Tagovailoas on the depth chart. Tua's younger brother, Taulia Tagovailoa, was signed to Alabama in 2019, but would ultimately transfer to Maryland in 2020.

Tulia only saw four snaps in his freshman year and didn't tally any statistics. Alabama's early plan was to place Taulia as a redshirt, granting him an extra year of eligibility as long as his snap count stayed below the minimum.

In 2022, after a few years with Maryland, Taulia was committed with them for the 2023 season. Heavy rumors had emerged that Taulia would be leaving Maryland.

In that offseason, however, we learned of an SEC school offering Taulia a $1.5 million NIL deal to play with their team for one single season. That team was the Auburn Tigers.

Taulia had not yet entered the transfer portal, but was already receiving messages and outside interest.

John Talty of CBS Sports provides some insight towards this situation.

" At times, the answer looked like yes. Taulia hadn't entered the transfer portal yet, but that hadn't stopped a message from making its way to him and his family that there was a lot of outside interest in his abilities."

It was here when Tua stepped in and intervened. According to multiple reports, Tua helped sway Taulia from joining Auburn in 2023.

"We're an Alabama family," Tua reportedly said. "You are not going to Auburn."

The love, passion and commitment to the Alabama program from Tua helped keep his brother from joining the Tide's arch-rival school. Alabama and Auburn are one of the biggest football rivalries in the entire country, and it surely would've been a sight to behold if Auburn had a quarterback with "Tagovailoa" on his back.