Steve Sarkisian reveals what concerns him about facing Jalen Milroe, Alabama offense
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and his defensive staff have a tough week ahead of them having to plan for Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe. Milroe, despite not being named the start ahead of Saturday, threw for 194 yards on 13 completions and added another 48 yards on the ground against Middle Tennessee.
It wasn’t an all-world performance but it was a very impressive season opener for Milroe.
“Jalen is a fantastic player,” Sarkisian said during a Monday press conference. “I got a chance to recruit him out of high school. He’s got a dynamic arm. He can make every throw in the book: Off platform, on the run, doesn’t matter. He’s a tremendous runner. He’s an elite runner with the ball in his hand with his speed and his physicality. And he’s highly competitive. He’s a really good leader.”
Milroe is a Texas native, playing his high school football for Katy (Texas) Tompkins. He was the No. 90 overall recruit in the 2021 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.
The dual-threat signal-caller committed to the Crimson Tide in 2020 when Sarkisian was the team’s offensive coordinator. Sarkisian departed for Texas before he ever got to coach Milroe.
“The thing probably that concerns me the most about that is they’re very balanced,” Sarkisian said. “They can run the ball with a runner. They’ve got really good speed on the perimeter with Isaiah Bond and Jermaine Burton and that crew that they have there. They utilize their tight ends and they got a physical offensive line. You put all that together and then ultimately the threat of the quarterback run. They’ve got a multitude of quarterback runs, whether they’re zone reads, power reads, quarterback direct runs, quarterback scrambles on third downs.”
That running ability is what makes Milroe so difficult to prepare for, Sarkisian said. As a backup quarterback to Bryce Young last season, Milroe rushed the ball 31 times for 263 total yards.
Throw in the talent Alabama has on the offensive side of the ball, especially on the offenseive line, and Sarkisian knows they have to key on stopping Milroe.
“We’re gonna have to spend extra time on how do we control and contain the quarterback with his legs,” Sarkisian said. “The rest of the offense is the offense. It’s good and it’s very well designed and they’ve got really good pieces. But the quarterback run, they’re gonna run the quarterback. It’s not a secret what they did in Week 1. We’re gonna get something different and that’s okay. But making sure that we are accounting for No. 4 in all of the quarterback run games is going to be a real key.”