Nick Saban praises Jalen Milroe ahead of Texas matchup: 'He's made a lot of progress'

Nick Saban joined The Pat McAfee Show on Friday, where he waxed poetic regarding the job Jalen Milroe has done.

It took a long battle throughout the summer for Milroe to be named quarterback of the Crimson Tide, but Saban isn’t looking back regarding Alabama’s decision entering Week 2. He believes Milroe has made a ton of progress, and the sky is the limit for the athletic specimen.

“Well he’s made a lot of progress as a player, and what he’s done is, he’s learned to process better. Make better choices and decisions, so it minimizes his bad plays,” Saban explained. “He’s always had a tremendous capacity to make big plays, explosive plays. He’s one of the fastest guys on the team. So when he pulls it down and takes off, it makes a difference, and it creates problems for the defense, and I think this can help us re-establish being a more balanced team, as well. His athleticism, and what it does to a defense.

“When you run the zone-read even, the end is supposed to take the quarterback. Well if the end can’t take the quarterback and that guy takes off, that guy can’t close as far to help on the dive. So all those things compliment each other.”

Alas, Milroe’s Week 1 performance did nothing but lend positive reinforcement to Saban’s decision to start the quarterback in 2023. However, the Texas Longhorns represent a whole different animal.

Regardless, even McAfee couldn’t disagree with Saban, likening Milroe to Lamar Jackson on multiple occasions while trying to find words to describe his abilities.

“That Milroe guy, and the flashes we’ve seen from him in the past … it’s hard to compare anybody to Lamar Jackson, and I guess it’s going to happen all the time. Any time a quarterback can run and can make people miss, they’re going to say, ‘Oh, it’s Lamar Jackson,’ just like people did with [Michael] Vick back in the day, just like it probably happened with Steve Young back in the day. But there are shades of Lamar Jackson in this Milroe,” McAfee said. “when you have him on a college football field, he looks like an adult outrunning everybody else. 

“I think we’ve got a great game on Saturday night, lucky to be here, pumped to experience the party. … The vibes in Tuscaloosa are immaculate right now.”

The hype is real surrounding Jalen Milroe for now, but we’ll see what Texas has to say about that in a monster showdown come Saturday night.