When Brian Daboll served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, Jalen Hurts worked as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback.

As the coach of the New York Giants, Daboll goes against Hurts twice a season now because he’s the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, an NFC East rival.

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On Sunday when New York visits the Miami Dolphins, Daboll will lead the Giants against the backup QB during the coach’s single season at Alabama.

During his final two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, Daboll crossed paths with Tua Tagovailoa twice each season in the AFC North. That was at a time when it didn’t seem as though the Dolphins were committed to Tagovailoa as a long-term option at quarterback even though Miami had used the fifth selection in the 2020 NFL Draft to obtain him.

The arrival of coach Mike McDaniel in Miami appeared to put an end to that last season, when Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing-efficiency rating even while he sustained two concussions.

Entering Week 5 of the NFL’s 2023 season, Tagovailoa leads the NFL with 1,306 passing yards and has the AFC’s best passer rating at 114.4.

“I’m not surprised,” Daboll said on Wednesday. “Not surprised. I have a lot of respect for Tua and how he plays that position, some of the stuff he went through early on in his career. He’s got great anticipation, he’s accurate, he’s a leader, and I am not surprised at all with the success he has had. He’s bounced back from some tough things injury-wise, but he’s a heck of a quarterback.”

Hurts completed 154-of-255 passes for 2,081 yards with 17 touchdowns and one interception and ran for 855 yards and eight touchdowns in Daboll’s offense at Alabama in 2017.

But Tagovailoa played, too, going 49-of-77 for 636 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions.

Of course, Tagovailoa’s final touchdown pass in the 2017 season is part of Alabama football lore. Trailing Georgia 13-0 at halftime in the CFP national-championship game, the Tide pulled Hurts at halftime, and Tagovailoa rallied Alabama to victory, with his 41-yard TD pass to wide receiver DeVonta Smith providing a 26-23 overtime win.

“He’s a great young man,” Daboll said. “Loves the game of football. Has good leadership about him. You can see the players really respect him and how he handles himself. Again, he’s very, very accurate. He throws on time, he’s a heck of a player and he’s a great person, too.”

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Daboll isn’t the only Giants coach praising Tagovailoa this week. New York defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is preparing his players for the NFL offense that has the most points and yards through the first four weeks of the season.

“My wife called me last night before she went to bed,” Martindale said on Thursday. “She said she was worried about me. She said, ‘Are you getting any sleep?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m sleeping like a baby: Every two hours, I wake up and cry and go to the bathroom and try to go back and get some more sleep.’ …

“This quarterback is playing at a high level. I’ve got a lot of respect for the kid. He knows where to go with the football. He’s accurate. He gets rid of it quick. I can’t say enough about Mike because of the situations that he puts him in where he can get rid of the ball quick, and he’s got those receivers and the right route concepts and everything else to get it to them quick. I’m not just saying quick like 3-yard routes. He’s throwing them before receivers come out of breaks and it’s just put right there on them.

“So in this game, I told the defense, there’s going to be plays made. You’ve got to just have that mentality that’s like, ‘Here we go again.’ Let’s just try to get a stop. Every play, let’s just try to get a stop. The more we can get them in third downs, the better off it is for us.”

Daboll and Martindale are praising Tagovailoa after the Dolphins’ first loss of the season. After a record-setting 70-20 victory over the Denver Broncos to move to 3-0 on Sept. 24, Miami lost to Buffalo 48-20 on Sunday.

During his postgame press conference, Tagovailoa called the setback “very humbling, and for some, much needed.”

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Tagovailoa was asked on Wednesday how his teammates had responded to that comment.

“You can see being in a locker room, some people, some guys take things with a grain of salt and some don’t,” Tagovailoa said. “Sometimes something like that is well-needed. Sometimes things like that are needed in losses, especially in the way that we lost, to get our guys closer together, to get guys doing things maybe they’ve never done or maybe they never had to do.

“But I do know one thing, that some guys are being asked to do more than others and I think it’s a good challenge for some that are willing to take up that challenge and, hopefully, do something with it on Sunday.”

The Giants and Dolphins will square off at noon CDT Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Tagovailoa is expecting Martindale to live up to his reputation as a blitz-heavy defensive coordinator. Sacked once in the first three games, Tagovailoa went down four times in the loss to the Bills.

“We try to use that to our advantage,” Tagovailoa said. “If they pressure, we’ve got to have answers quick, get the ball out quick and allow our guys and our playmakers to make plays.”

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