If not for his family, Tagovailoa could have been at USC

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Squint your eyes until that crimson jersey turns a slightly darker shade of cardinal. Imagine those white pants becoming gold.

With top-ranked Alabama playing for the national championship Monday night, USC fans can be forgiven for daydreaming about what might have been.

What if quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had stepped off the plane in Los Angeles, instead of continuing east to Tuscaloosa, when he left high school in Hawaii? What if the big, strong-armed sophomore had guided the Trojans' offense this season?

"Our team was USC growing up," he says. "I used to be No. 11 because of Matt Leinart. He was a lefty, as well."

Back in 2016, when Tagovailoa was a prized recruit out of Hawaii, there were