In the first quarter of his first game at Alabama, wide receiver John Metchie III made his first catch for the Crimson Tide – a 5-yard reception during a 42-3 victory over Duke on Aug. 31, 2019.

Tua Tagovailoa threw the football to Metchie that day – one of the 180 completions for the quarterback in his final season for Alabama but the first of Metchie’s four receptions as a freshman.

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Miami’s practice with the Houston Texans on Wednesday did more than allow Tagovailoa to work against a defense other than the Dolphins’ as he prepares for his fourth NFL season.

Miami’s visit to Houston for two days of joint work before their preseason meeting on Saturday give Tagovailoa an opportunity to check up on Metchie, a wide receiver for the Texans.

Metchie is back on the field after acute promyelocytic leukemia sidelined him for his entire rookie season.

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“It was really good to see him,” Tagovailoa said. “It was really good to see a lot of the other Alabama guys as well — Christian Harris, Henry To’oTo’o, Will Anderson. It was good. It’s a good alumni kind of deal. We got a good amount of Alabama guys on our team as well. …

“It was really cool to see them, talk it up with them, ask them how they’re doing. Everyone’s doing good, so that was cool.”

Harris was doing especially well by the end of the practice. A linebacker in the same Alabama class as Metchie, Harris intercepted Tagovailoa and returned it for a touchdown while the teams were scrimmaging.

Harris said he’d seen enough of Tagovailoa that he didn’t let the quarterback maneuver him out of position.

“Just trying to trust my instincts,” Harris said. “Kind of felt where I was at was a good position. Just tried to make a play.”

Tagovailoa discussed the interception with Harris after practice.

“I think it’s what I’ve done best is looking guys off and no-looking throws into holes like that,” Tagovailoa said. “I talked to Christian Harris – buddy, Alabama – and he told me that, ‘Dude, you did that so much to us last year that like I was like, OK, just trust my drop in this area.’And he’s like: I’m not falling for it. And that’s basically what happened, so it’s a good play for him.

“And that, too, the mind game of that, it’s like, ‘Wow, I never thought that you’d figure that out, that piece of the game out.’ So kudos to him.”

The Dolphins have five Alabama alumni and the Texans have four. Harris played with six of them while with the Crimson Tide.

“It was good, for sure, to be able to see everybody out here,” Harris said.

Harris said it also was good to work against another offense after going against Houston’s in training camp.

“It’s always good in general just to go against another color and compete,” Harris said. “Just try to use the things that we’ve learned so far, put together in this training camp and put them against another team. It’s a lot of stuff we obviously need to clean up.”

Tagovailoa said the joint practices had a less obvious benefit for the Dolphins, with the extended road trip providing an opportunity for team bonding.

“We had an off-day yesterday coming here,” Tagovailoa said after Wednesday’s practice. “Went to dinner with the guys on Monday. And then we also got to go watch a movie yesterday, so it was cool. It was like a movie fest yesterday. Just movie hopping. Watched ‘Oppenheimer.’ That was pretty good. Freaking long. That’s a long movie, oh my gosh. ‘Sound of Freedom’ is good. Yeah, ‘Sound of Freedom’ is definitely really good. You guys should watch that, especially you guys with kids. (Backup quarterback) Mike White paid for dinner. I know — exactly. What?”

The Dolphins and Texans will move from joint practices to a preseason game at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Tagovailoa did not play in Miami’s preseason opener – a 19-3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Friday night – and said he didn’t know if he’d play against the Texans.

“Whatever (coach) Mike (McDaniel) has in plan, whatever he has in store, I’m ready,” Tagovailoa said, “whether I play this week, whether I play next week, whatever he decides or if I don’t play.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.