Jalen Milroe wants Alabama to ‘reflect and build’ after upset loss vs. Vanderbilt

The Alabama Crimson Tide suffered a massive upset at the hands of the Vanderbilt Commodores. With that, quarterback Jalen Milroe knows that Alabama needs to reflect and rebuild as they move on from here.

Milroe explained that Alabama needed to emphasize the 24-hour rule and then refocus for the rest of the season. As they do so, they need to look at what went wrong and figure out how to improve on the things they did poorly.

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“Reflect and build,” Jalen Milroe said. “I think that’s so important for a football team because, of course, losing feels bad. It’s all about how you can reflect and how you can refine and get better. That’s gonna be so critical for us to have a 24-hour rule, regroup, refocus, and challenge each other to get better. We know that we’re not a finished product.”

In the end, Vanderbilt beat Alabama by a score of 40-35. There was no mistake in that final either, with Vanderbilt winning both the turnover battle, time of possession, and having more rushing yards.

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“We acknowledged that there’s rooms to grow,” Milroe said. “So, for all of us, all we want to do is continue to compete, continue to just acknowledge that we have short-term goals and long-term goals. That’s all still achievable if we have the right mindset. If we approach it the same way. So, it’s so important that we just acknowledge there’s so much for us to get better at.”

There was an opportunity for this to be an emotional letdown after beating Georgia the way they did the week before. However, even if Alabama struggled, nobody expected a loss to Vanderbilt. On top of that, Jalen Milroe made it clear that the team was ready for the game.

“Absolutely. Throughout the whole season, we did a really good job preparing. Had the right mindset, approaching it day-by-day, just trying to get better as a whole group. The best thing about football is opportunity. So, now, we have the opportunity to get better. We have the opportunity to reflect,” Milroe said.

“So, this is going to be so important for us as a group to really just channel in, acknowledge that there’s still room for us to improve and get to the best of our abilities. I still trust the guys in the locker room. That’s no question. We just need an opportunity like this to present itself so that we can reflect and build. I’ve been in this situation before and I know exactly what we needed to do, just continue to go on the same path and I’ll be having the same mindset.”

Alabama is a team that expects to compete for SEC Championships and the College Football Playoff. Even with the loss, that’s still very much on the table this season. However, Jalen Milroe is trying to avoid looking at the big picture and focus on the next game.

“I think single game-by-game. I think that’s so important as we go on in this path to just go one game at a time, one game at a time. Coach [Nick] Sheridan mentioned it to us, one game shouldn’t be our best game. Each game that goes by we should get better and better and better, and learn from it. No matter what, that’s what is so unique about playing the game of football is that each of these defenses gives us different looks,” Milroe said.

“So, it makes us better, and it makes us really channel in and try to have great eye discipline, have to play with ball dominance, and just protect each other as much as possible. So, I think we just gotta learn, we gotta grow, and just take it day-by-day.”

Next, Alabama is getting ready to take on South Carolina next week, looking to bounce back from a tough loss.