Rookie Tagovailoa set to share field with mentor Mariota

There wasn’t really a place for the 9-year-old with the rocket arm at the weekend quarterback camps run by Vinny Passas back in Honolulu.

One side of the field was for the sixth-graders and younger, while the other was for the older kids.

Young Tua Tagovailoa was far too advanced for the beginners who had no chance of holding on to his laser-like passes. The more experienced group didn’t want him around either out of fear he would embarrass them should they be the one unfortunate enough to have to follow him in a drill.

Passas, a renowned quarterback guru who has developed a string of successful signal-callers from the islands, remembers one of the older kids taking Tagovailoa under his wing.

“Marcus (Mariota) was like the big brother that said to just hang out with him and he’d be OK,” Passas said. “From then on, if somebody would try to chase him away, he’d just stand right next to Marcus and follow him around. The throws he would make were amazing. I never saw a kid that age that could throw the ball like that.”

Mariota would go on to win the Heisman Trophy at Oregon and move on to a successful career in the NFL. Tagovailoa would go to Alabama, finish second in the Heisman voting and cite Mariota as his idol.

Both were selected in the top five of the draft five years apart and will once again step on the same field Saturday as Mariota’s Raiders host Tagovailoa’s Dolphins at Allegiant Stadium.

KITV-TV Channel 4 in Honolulu this week referred to the regular-season game with AFC wild-card implications as the biggest NFL game in the history of Hawaii, particularly should Mariota get the nod to start over an injured Derek Carr.

“I think it’s something really cool being that me and Marcus are both of Samoan heritage,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. “His dad is Samoan and then both my parents are Samoan, and we come from Hawaii. I think that’s something super cool to see for the kids back home in Hawaii, to see two guys compete against one another, if Marcus is named the starter.

“If Marcus does get that opportunity, I think it’ll be really fun.”

Special reunion

Either way, the two kids will be on the same football field a long way from where their paths first crossed at those football camps. Mariota, then a high school freshman, looked out for the young phenom.

Some days, Mariota would walk Tagovailoa to a nearby fast food restaurant after camp and mentor him on the finer points of football and on balancing life as a talented young athlete with faith and family.

“Marcus kind of took me under his wing, so to say,” Tagovailoa said. “He has just been the standard a lot of the kids back home look to as a person, as a human being. And being as good as he was, that didn’t change who he was as a person.”

Tagovailoa eventually hung Mariota’s Oregon jersey in the family home and badly wanted to follow his footsteps and become a Duck.

According to Passas, Tagovailoa wasn’t alone in his admiration of Mariota.

“He really set the bar for a lot of athletes in Hawaii,” Passas said of the first-year Raiders quarterback. “They all wanted to be like him and they just admire what he’s done and what he’s about.”

It was initially devastating for Tagovailoa when Oregon didn’t become interested in him as a prospect until late in the recruiting process. His decision to go to Alabama worked out just fine, though.

Passas, who has been living in Las Vegas and mentoring quarterbacks during the pandemic as he awaits the restart of the football program at Saint Louis School in Honolulu, attended both Heisman ceremonies with his former pupils.

Saturday will be a special day for him.

“It’s really an awesome feeling to see those two guys playing in the NFL,” he said. “I just thank the good lord for choosing me to have our paths cross. Just to be part of their journey is really amazing.”

Two role models

Passas, who has also worked with Darnell Arceneaux (Utah), Jason Gesser (Washington State), Timmy Chang (Hawaii) and just about every other quarterback to come off the islands, speaks more highly of the character of Mariota and Tagovailoa than even their immense football skills.

“In my camps, I kind of use Marcus and Tua as the models,” Passas said. “There’s God, then mom, then dad, then everything else. That’s just who both of them are.”

Mariota clearly holds a special place in the coach’s heart. He remembers Mariota making himself available to tutor his teammates and even the younger players on and off the field.

In a truly Hawaiian example, Passas said he was blown away by Mariota’s willingness to stay back even on days the waves at Sandy Beach were perfect for bodyboarding just to help out his teammates with a term paper or to study for an exam.

“He was special and just such a genuine person,” Passas said. “He’s the kind of guy you want your daughter to come home with, not because of the huge contract, but he’s just that super nice guy and a good-looking kid that everyone just falls in love with. That’s a gift. And you knew he’d make it because he’s so good at making the people around him better. He makes everyone around him feel special and that comes so easy to him.”

While the humility and strong belief in faith and family have shined through for Mariota and Tagovailoa as their popularity has grown, from the beginning it was with a football in their hands that they have stood out.

“When I saw Marcus, he was long and tall and a really good-looking athlete,” Passas remembers. “He was a fabulous soccer player so he had good feet. Watching him run, it seemed like he was running downhill on every sprint. He threw the ball effortlessly and had this amazing work ethic. You have to tell him to stop working or to take a day off every once in a while.”

A prodigy

Tagovailoa was routinely making passes 30 yards downfield at 9 years old when other kids his age struggled to get the ball beyond 10 yards.

By the time he was in eighth grade, he was practicing with the varsity team at Saint Louis, one of the premier high school football programs in the nation.

Mariota didn’t even become a starter there until he was a senior.

“For a guy at that age, he was something special,” Passas said. “To keep up with the varsity players on that team as an eighth grader is absolutely amazing.”

A decade later, Tagovailoa is the starting quarterback for a team with playoff aspirations. Passas thought the Dolphins would sit him out this season, particularly as he recovered from a serious hip injury, but has been impressed with his performance as a rookie.

“Tua is getting better with every snap he takes,” Passas said. “I know they’re being conservative with him and trying to protect him, but I think if he can be like Kyler Murray and tell the coach, “Hey, you don’t have to protect me. I’ve got your back,’ I think things will be different. He’s got that look in his eye. I’m really happy for his progress. He’s been a whole lot better than I expected this soon and so quickly after a broken hip. My gosh.”

As for Mariota, Passas loved what he saw in his relief appearance against the Chargers as the former Tennessee Titan starter got his first game action of the season.

“Marcus looked like the Oregon quarterback that won the Heisman Trophy,” Passas said. “He played with reckless abandon, creating first downs and more opportunities for the offense. I thought he was pretty sharp. I thought he did pretty amazing for the situation. He’s been waiting for the opportunity for such a long time. I’m happy he was able to heal up and get another chance.”

Passas said Mariota was told he would need a full year of rest to get back to full strength. Signing with the Raiders gave him the chance to sit behind Derek Carr and learn under Jon Gruden without putting much stress on his body.

Now he might be called upon again. Passas can’t wait to watch the game and see how his proteges do head-to-head in the NFL.

“I just hope the score is like 70-something to 70-something and ends in a tie, as long as that doesn’t hurt Miami’s playoff chances. I just wish the best for both of them. I’ll be cheering for the offense for the whole game. Just knowing my two brothers are competing against each other at the highest level is so amazing.

“We’re so proud of that. Not only for the state of Hawaii, but for the brotherhood at Saint Louis and the whole lineage of great quarterbacks that have been through there.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.