Kirk Herbstreit on Jalen Milroe, Alabama offensive changes: Margin of error is smaller

The Alabama offense has continued to adapt under Nick Saban. At one point, the Crimson Tide leaned on their running game and played a ball-control style of offense. Then Mac Jones and Tua Tagovailoa came along, and Alabama started airing the ball out.

Now it appears as though Alabama is going back to more of the ground-and-pound style offense that it ran early on in Saban’s tenure.

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit recently previewed Alabama’s showdown with Texas scheduled for Saturday and spoke about what he saw from new quarterback Jalen Milroe and the offense in the opener against Middle Tennessee.

“I can only go by what we saw last week, where they had an entire off-season to prepare him to be the guy compared to filling in for Bryce Young. I loved what I saw,” Herbstreit said. “If what Nick Saban is saying is true, if they are going to go back to being more defensive-oriented, special teams, turnover margin, field position, run the football, play smart, don’t turn it over, I still think you can win that way. 

Now, your margin of error is going to be much tighter compared to having an offense that can score in four plays and score 45 points a game.”

Alabama attempted only 24 pass attempts in its season opener, compared to 40 rushing attempts. Some of that was likely due to the game being a blow out, but the word coming out of Alabama this preseason was that the offensive approach would be different than it has been in recent years in 2023.

Jalen Milroe impressed with both his arm and his legs in Week 1, passing for 194 yards and three touchdowns on 18 attempts and rushing for 48 yards and two scores.

Kirk Herbstreit has seen him grow since early on in his career.

“The kid, he showed the arm strength to go downfield,” Herbstreit said. “I think a lot of attention has been on that position. But for me, I’m more interested in Tommy Rees and what he’s going to bring, what Nick Saban’s going to allow him to do offensively.”

We should get a better idea of what the offense will look like under Rees this weekend when the Crimson Tide host Texas.

While Herbstreit believes Alabama can be successful with a different-looking offense, he added that the defense and special teams better be elite. The Crimson Tide aren’t expected to regularly pick up yards in chunks through the air and aren’t expected to score in a hurry.

“You’re going to have to do it a different way. You’re going to have to control the ebb and flow of the game, which is where the defense and the special teams and turnover margin comes into play,” Herbstreit said.

“I do think you can win the old-fashioned way. It’s just, it’s tougher to do, and it puts a lot on your defense and your special teams unit. Like I said, the margin of error is much smaller.”