Tua Tagovailoa earns 1st SEC award; McKenzie Milton’s status unknown

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (13) throws to a receiver in the first half of an NCAA college football game against Tennessee on Oct. 20 in Knoxville, Tenn.

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He’s the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy and for one week, finally, Tua Tagovailoa was honored as the SEC’s best.

The Alabama sophomore quarterback won his first Southeastern Conference offensive player of the week award on Monday after recording his third game of 300 yards passing and four touchdowns this season.

Tagovailoa finished 19-for-29 for 306 yards and four TDs in a 58-21 win over Tennessee on Saturday.

The 2017 Saint Louis alumnus still hasn’t thrown an interception this season and leads the nation in passing efficiency (238.8) and yards per completion (19.3). He’s completing 70.4 percent (107-for-152) of his passes for 2,066 yards and 25 TDs.

The No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide have a bye week to prepare for a Nov. 3 game against LSU in Baton Rouge, La.

The Tigers, with starting defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko (Farrington ’15), are ranked No. 4 in this week’s AP Top 25.

Milton’s status still unknown

UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton snapped a streak of 27 consecutive starts for the Knights when he was held out of Saturday’s 37-10 win over East Carolina.

Milton’s absence was a shock to the ESPN crew televising the game as well as local media in Orlando, Fla.

Knights coach Josh Heupel said after the game that the decision was made to rest Milton following pregame warmups for “overall health” reasons.

On a Monday teleconference call, Heupel was asked if the 2016 Mililani alumnus would be ready for the Knights’ next game against Temple on Nov. 3.

UCF has a bye this weekend.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t talked with our medical staff yet, so it’s too early to make that determination,” Heupel said.

The Knights extended their winning streak to 20 games with the win over the Pirates.

Milton briefly left the game against Memphis on Oct. 13 but came back to finish off a come-from-behind win over the Tigers.

He told reporters after the game that he tweaked his ankle while scoring on a go-ahead 7-yard touchdown run when he flipped into the end zone.

Billy Hull, Star-Advertiser; the Associated Press contributed to this report.