Those weren’t footballs whistling past Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, they were pointed preseason challenges lobbed by his coach, Nick Saban.

Saban got an artificial hip last month and gave the impression Tuesday of shooting straight from it.

In a media session at the opening of Southeastern Conference meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla. Saban took a question about the quarterback position as an opportunity to deliver a message, saying, “I think Tua has to challenge himself a little bit to get back to … I think being hurt was an issue for him at the end of the season.”

Saban added, “And, I think that he has to challenge himself to get back into great shape and overcome some of the things that happened toward the end of the (2018 season). I think he should take the perception that he has a lot to prove relative to how we ended the season. I think our whole team fits into that category.”

What is apparent here is that as Crimson Tide players prepare for the opening of camp this summer and memories of that 44-16 thrashing by Clemson in the Football Playoff recede, Saban wanted to give them something to think about as they go about unsupervised workouts.

And the best way to do that was by starting at the top and challenging Tagovailoa, the current face of the program and cover figure on preseason football magazines.

There is always a method to what Saban says anytime he steps to the podium on media days and in this instance you suspect he was addressing the team as a whole as much as he was the junior quarterback from Ewa.

Saban is a master motivator and in this instance we have college football’s multi-million dollar coach intent on making a bunch of four- and five-star recruits believe they are underdogs.

In pointing to Tagovailoa the thinking is apparently that if there is a raging fire of redemption burning under the 2018 Heisman Trophy runner-up and projected first-round 2020 NFL Draft pick, it will likely spread through the lineup. As Tagovailoa goes about meeting the Crimson Tide’s expectations of recapturing the national championship, the rest of the roster will follow.

Saban carried the something-to-prove theme with him to the Paul Finebaum Show on ESPN, where he said, “He (Tagovailoa) had a tremendous amount of success last year. He’s a great person, a great competitor. But I think, at some point in time, when you start thinking about outcomes … outcomes can be a distraction. Whether you want to win awards for yourself or you just want to win a championship for your team.

“And, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either one of those things,” Saban quickly added. “But when you start focusing on outcomes, it is sort of a distraction because you really need to focus on what you need to do to get the outcome.”

While Tagovailoa set a bunch of Alabama passing records — 3,966 yards and 43 touchdowns — in his inaugural season as the starting quarterback, his efficiency lagged toward the end against more imposing defenses with four interceptions. Some of it no doubt attributable to the late-season knee and ankle injuries.

If you’ve spent any amount of time around Tagovailoa you quickly come to understand the Saint Louis School graduate needs very little external motivation, that he has an internal engine that has long driven him to be the best on the highest levels. It is what, after all, brought him to Alabama undaunted by the presence of the already-established Jalen Hurts and propelled him to win the job.

Witnessing the national championship and Heisman Trophy go elsewhere is likely the only motivation Tagovailoa really needs heading into what projects to be the final year of his college career.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.