Taulia Tagovailoa Transfer Waiver Approved To Play At Maryland, Will It Matter?

Paul Finebaum was on WJOX in Birmingham to talk about Taulia Tagovailoa's transfer waiver to Maryland being approved and didn't waste time with what this means for the B1G landscape. “I don’t mean to beat up on Taulia, but I just think this whole thing with him is much ado about nothing," Finebaum said, adding If he starts at Maryland and leads them to an exciting 7-5 record, good for them. But I think the sweepstakes for him was far overdone."

Paul must've forgotten that the Big Ten will play a 10-game season, but the point is clear.

Tau's younger brother was stuck in a loaded quarterback battle with Mac Jones (played in 11 games & completed 69% of his passes) and 5-star recruit Bryce Young who was 24/7's top-ranked dual-threat passer after the 2019 high school season.

In other words, Taulia was going to be riding the bench, but at Maryland he should have a legitimate opportunity to start this season for former Bama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, now the Terrapins head coach.

Will the Taulia transfer matter in 2020? Former Virginia Tech starter Josh Jackson played in 10 games for Locksley a year ago and will likely get the job in the opener, but how long will it be before Taulia's thrown in there to provide a spark? Probably not long. It's Maryland and they were 3-9 a year ago. The offense averaged 12.5 points over nine games after opening the season with a blowout of Howard and Syracuse. Mike has no option here but to throw whatever he has in the arsenal at the wolves and see what happens.

Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan are on the schedule. That's five losses and we haven't even talked about Michigan State and Indiana playing competent enough football to destroy Maryland.

The Terrapins defense is coming off a season where it finished dead last in the B1G total and scoring defense. That's a problem for Taulia and whomever else Mike throws out there. It doesn't take a football genius to know Taulia back there slinging it while down 28 is an easy way to get lit up.

It's still a Maryland offensive line. It's still a Maryland defense. It's still Maryland football. And the schedule doesn't line up. The good news here is that Locksley will have his hands on a competent quarterback going forward that he can build around.

Verdict: Maryland finishes 2-8 in 2020