Urban Meyer: The Reggie Bush-Percy Harvin of college football is playing QB at Alabama

When Alabama lost to Texas at home early in the season, few probably expected the Crimson Tide to make a real run at the 2023 College Football Playoffs.

After the Tide benched starting quarterback Jalen Milroe and put on an absolute disaster clinic against USF, most around college football wrote them off.

Yet here Alabama is entering Week 11 of the season, sitting at No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings, well within striking distance. The Crimson Tide have all but sewn up the West’s spot in the SEC Championship Game.

And you can probably point to one man as the major reason why: Jalen Milroe.

“Right now the Reggie Bush, Percy Harvin of college football is playing quarterback at Alabama, and they’re running him,” FOX analyst Urban Meyer said on Urban’s Take with Tim May. “He had 130 yards rushing, 20-something carries, 25 carries, and there’s a couple clips on that video tape that he is, other than Marvin Harrison, he’s the best athlete in college football and he’s touching the ball every snap at Alabama.”

Milroe has certainly been electric. The Alabama gunslinger has done it all in recent weeks.

Against LSU he ran for 155 yards and four touchdowns, as Alabama really opened up the offense to Milroe’s legs. That was nearly half of his season total in rushing in just one game.

That’s a dangerous prospect for upcoming opponents. Meyer is kicking himself for writing Alabama off a bit too early.

“The minute you bet against that staff and that roster you’re wrong,” he said. “They were a mess early in the year. They benched their quarterback, they rotated two guys. Against South Florida I’ve never seen an Alabama team look like that. Then you watch them now, it’s just… don’t bet against them.”

If Alabama is going to make a run to the College Football Playoff, it’s going to need the version of Milroe that showed up against LSU. They can’t get the sometimes turnover prone, unsure passer from earlier in the season.

The good news?

Jalen Milroe hasn’t been that guy for a while now.

“This guy is, I heard about it, you could see it early on, but he is the best athlete on the field when he plays,” said Meyer, the former Ohio State coach. “To have that guy touch the ball every snap… at times the play was dead and he gets 30 yards. That was the Braxton Miller effect that we had back in 2012.”