Nick Saban on the mentality of Jalen Milroe, entire team in loss to Texas

It was a rough outing for Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe on Saturday as he threw two interceptions and was sacked five times in the Crimson Tide’s 34-24 loss to Texas.

But despite this Milroe stayed confident and positive throughout the contest, and even after the game when speaking to media, which head coach Nick Saban was asked about in his press conference on Monday.

“I think it’s important at all positions,” Saban said. “The one thing you don’t want to do is get frustrated as a player, you don’t want one play to affect the next play and to stay positive. But you can say stay positive, but we all have self-talk right? But you gotta believe it, you can’t just say okay I’m going to do this but don’t believe you can do it. You gotta believe and trust in yourself too.”

The Crimson Tide found themselves on the ropes at home early, entering halftime down 13-6 and yet to score a touchdown.

Their positivity really showed in the third quarter, where they outscored the Longhorns 10-0 to take their first lead of the game following a 49-yard touchdown pass from Milroe to Jermaine Burton. But the Longhorns would go on a tear in the fourth quarter, scoring three touchdowns and securing the first double-digit win versus Alabama in Bryant-Denny Stadium since 2003.

“So I think the players stayed positive, they tried to keep the energy level up, they didn’t get frustrated in the game, and Jalen didn’t either,” Saban said. “But still, you got to trust and have faith, confidence in doing what you’re coached to do on a consistent basis and that’s gonna help you be successful.”

The confidence may have been there for the Crimson Tide, but the production wasn’t, as Alabama looked uncharacteristic of themselves in a multitude of ways.

Alabama had two turnovers on Saturday and forced none on the Longhorns, also having 10 penalties called on them which accounted for 90 yards. They also struggled running the ball and were far from efficient on converting third downs, rushing for just 107 yards on the day and converting on five of their 14 third down attempts.

There’s no doubt the Crimson Tide have some areas to improve upon, but their confidence should stay high in Week 3 as they visit South Florida this Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. ET game against the Bulls where they’re favored by 31.5 points according to FanDuel.