Jalen Milroe accomplishes first three passing touchdown, three rushing touchdown game in program history

The Alabama Crimson Tide and quarterback Jalen Milroe have been rolling along like a well-oiled machine lately on the football field. The Tide have looked like one of the strongest programs in America the past few weeks.

They continued their impressive streak on Saturday, dominating Kentucky to the tune of 49-21. A big part of their dominance has been the spectacular play of Milroe, who’s established himself as one of the more dynamic players in all of college football in the past few weeks.

On Saturday against Kentucky, he became the first QB in Crimson Tide football history with three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns in a single game. As a passer, he completed 15 of 22 passes for 234 yards, while throwing for three touchdowns. He also tacked on three rushing touchdowns.

Check out the graphic below from the SEC Network.

Jalen Milroe is the first QB in @AlabamaFTBL history with 3 pass TD and 3 rush TD in a game 💪 pic.twitter.com/ZtLrNbxS3N

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 11, 2023

Two weeks ago, when Alabama went into the bye week, Jalen Milroe had 13 passing touchdowns and nine rushing touchdowns on the season as he seemed to be finding his stride. Over the Crimson Tide’s last two games, though, he has broken out with three passing touchdowns and seven rushing scores en route to back-to-back victories.

Normally, the bye week is a chance to hit the reset button and take a break from the grind of the season. As for how important it was for Milroe, a proven dual threat with his arm and his legs, Nick Saban wondered if it was a chance for him to find another way to keep his skills sharp.

“I don’t know if he took some Geritol or what,” Saban joked after Saturday’s win over Kentucky. “That’s my medicine that I use, us old folks. You’d have to really ask him.”

Milroe was up-and-down to start the year as Alabama went 1-1 through two games. He then found himself on the bench against USF as Saban assessed his quarterback situation. After that game, though, Saban named him the starter, and it’s been off to the races. On Saturday against Kentucky, he had 234 passing yards, 36 rushing yards and six touchdowns — three passing and three rushing — to lead the effort.

The Crimson Tide extended their winning streak to eight games since that loss to Texas with a resounding 49-21 win on Saturday. That includes back-to-back wins out of the bye, including last week’s thriller against LSU.

Saban said Milroe was finding a groove pre-bye week, as well, and pointed out what the week off can do for players both mentally and physically. It’s also rubbing off on the rest of the team.

“I thought he was playing really well before the bye week,” Saban said. “Obviously, the bye week helps a lot of players sort of recalibrate, self-assess how they’re playing, be able to work on some of the things that have been issues or problem for them, which helps them improve. You don’t have a pressure of another game plan during a bye week, so you can kind of focus on what you need to do, so that’s probably a good thing for all players.

“I think his confidence is growing and I think the confidence of the players around him has grown, and our production and performance has sort of mirrored that confidence.”

The Alabama offense came out of the gate fast against Kentucky with 21 first-quarter points en route to the 49-21 victory to clinch the SEC West title and a conference title game berth. Saban pointed out that fast start, which helped set the tone for the rest of the game.

On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.