Getty Tua Tagovailoa tweeted out support of his friend McKenzie Milton.
Players and fans all over the country responded to the gruesome injury to UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton including Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa. The Alabama quarterback played against Milton growing up together in Hawaii.
“Prayers out to my brother?? shake back 10??♂️,” Tagovailoa tweeted.
“We’re very supportive of each other but at the same time, we compete,” Milton told Sporting News prior to the start of the season. “I try to hold myself to Tua’s standard in the way he plays the game. I think he’s one of the best QBs in the country.”
Milton’s high school coach Rod York noted he sees the same player at UCF that he coached at Mililani.
“That’s the kind of person he is. He goes down and sets goals and it doesn’t matter what people say about him: ‘Too small, too short, he’s not experienced, from Hawaii,’” York explained to Sporting News. “He just goes out there and plays and does his best. He doesn’t play to prove people wrong, but when he does, and the success he has, he’s proven people wrong while on his journey.”
Both Tagovailoa and Milton have led their teams to undefeated seasons so far this year. Milton initially committed to Hawaii before following Scott Frost to UCF. Frost had recruited Milton while he was Oregon’s offensive coordinator. There has been no word on the severity of Milton’s injury, but it would be surprising if he returned to play this season.
“Man, I just remember Tua being 10 or 11 years old and throwing the ball 50 yards and wishing I could throw the football like that,” Milton told Jim Rome per Saturday Down South. “He was my quarterback and I was his running back. Then he ended up going to a team closer to where he lived, so our team needed a quarterback and that was how I started playing quarterback.”
Ole Miss quarterback Jordan Ta’amu is also from Hawaii and spoke about the influx of Hawaiian quarterbacks in college football.
“I think it’s amazing to have Hawaiian quarterbacks come out here and showcase themselves and know that they can come out here and they can compete with the rest of those guys and compete with the country,” Ta’amu explained to AL.com. “We are all doing our thing for our state.”