The Miami football program lost two potential quarterbacks this week when Taulia Tagovailoa, transferred to Maryland and four-star QB 2021 QB Aaron McLaughlin announced his commitment to North Carolina State. Miami football needs to find a QB for 2021.
Rising redshirt freshman Peyton Matocha and incoming freshman Tyler VanDyke are the only quarterbacks on the Miami football roster guaranteed to be with the Hurricanes in 2022. The transfer of QB Taulia Tagovailoa from Alabama to Maryland and commitment of Aaron McLaughlin to North Carolina State hinder Miami’s future.
Many college football recruiting analysts thought that Tagovailoa, the younger brother of 2021 Miami Dolphins first-round pick Tua Tagovalioa would follow his brother to South Florida by transferring to Miami, Florida International or Florida Atlantic. The Tagaovalioa family is very close.
Taulia followed Tua to Alabama after the family moved from Hawaii to a Birmingham suburb when Tua enrolled at Alabama in fall 2017. After winning a national championship as a freshman, Tua left Tuscaloosa a year early for the NFL Draft following the 2019 season. Taulia decided to move on as well.
Taulia will join the Terrapins who are coached by Mike Locksley who was the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017 and 2018. Maryland was somewhere in the middle of the group of teams favored to sign Taulia. Taulia Tagovailoa is expected to sit out the 2020 season and have three seasons of eligibility remaining.
“I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
— Maryland Football (@TerpsFootball) May 16, 2020
Lets ride, @tauliaa12 🐢 pic.twitter.com/WWUR9rjANH
Miami is reportedly very high on VanDyke’s future. The Hurricanes need to sign a QB in the 2021 class. Houston graduate transfer D’Eriq King will only be eligible for the 2020 season. Rising redshirt juniors N’Kosi Perry and Tate Martell could elect to leave Coral Gables after the 2020 season.
If either Perry and/or Martell stays for their final season of eligibility in 2021 they would be expected to compete with VanDyke to be the starting QB. The depth for the Miami football program in 2022 is concerning. NC State was the favorite to sign McLaughlin. Losing him to the Wolfpack was still a significant loss.
The other QBs Miami is strongly looking at are favored to sign elsewhere. Four-star Miller Moss from California who might re-classify to 2020 has Alabama, LSU, UCLA, USC, as his top-four choices. Four-stars, Jalen Milroe and former Virginia Tech commit Damatrius Davis are projected to sign with Texas and Auburn.
Milroe is committed to the Longhorns. Davis is not currently committed after backing off his pledge to the Hokies. This puts Miami in a precarious position for 2021. Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee offered a scholarship to three-star former Georgia baseball commit Bubba Chandler earlier this week.
Chandler is expected to sign with Clemson to play football and baseball. There are not many other QBs available in the Class of 2021 who are good enough to play at Miami. The possibility is that the Miami football program will look to add another QB through the transfer portal again in 2021. VanDyke would become the likely 2022 starter.