Iron Bowl Notebook: Jalen Milroe talks meaning of rivalry, Auburn defense

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s Iron Bowl week in the state of Alabama, one of the most heated rivalries in the sport of college football, and one that this year will be almost solely about the hatred between these two programs with both teams likely out of national championship contention.

Following Alabama’s Tuesday practice, quarterback Jalen Milroe spoke about a couple of different points relating to this week’s game.

Milroe talks meaning of the Iron Bowl

Saturday’s game will be Milroe’s second start against Auburn and his fourth Iron Bowl during his time at Alabama. He’s not from the state of Alabama, hailing from Texas, but he’s been around long enough to come to understand what this rivalry means to the people of this state.

“It means a lot,” Milroe said. “Especially understanding the rivalry, understanding how much it means to a lot of people and the rich history behind it. It means a lot to a lot of the guys in the locker room, and myself as well.”

Last season, in Milroe’s first start in an Iron Bowl, he made one of the most memorable plays in the rivalry’s storied history with his 31-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-goal from the 31-yard-line with less than a minute to go in the game.

He also experienced Bryce Young‘s miraculous comeback as a backup quarterback in the 2021 Iron Bowl. Through three years of his Alabama career, he’s never been on a team that’s lost to Auburn.

“Now, this is my fourth Iron Bowl, just seeing all that’s involved as a part of the rivalry, and how much it means to a lot of people,” Milroe said. “For us, we’re playing for the state of Alabama, playing for out families, playing for the guys in the locker room. This game means a lot to a lot of people, understanding the history, understanding the state of Alabama. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, especially now to be at home this year, we’re looking forward to the challenge and all that goes into the rivalry.”

Milroe previews matchup with Auburn defense

Milroe and the Alabama offense is in need of a much better performance this week against Auburn after putting up just three points in last week’s loss to Oklahoma.

The Tigers’ defense ranks around the middle-to-bottom-half of the SEC coming into this game, sitting at 11th in scoring defense and 8th in total defense, but this Crimson Tide offensive unit has been far too inconsistent to have full confidence in at this point.

Milroe gave his thoughts on the Auburn defensive unit, and what he expects to see on the other side of the field.

“Very physical. They have a lot of guys who are upperclassmen, so they’re very knowledgeable of football, that sticks out,” Milroe said. “They have a good, physical defensive line that’s going to cause a lot of disruption in the backfield. They have a lot of guys in the secondary that have eyes on the quarterback, it’s going to be important to have eye discipline when it comes to the passing game. They have linebackers that are downhill and do a lot of movement, so it’s gonna be important for us to understand where we need to slide out protection to, and understand how we can be efficient on offense.”

Milroe also looked back at the Oklahoma game that was such a struggle for the Alabama offense, and reemphasized some things that need to be improved upon this week.

“I thought that it was simple things that we needed to execute as an offense and as a group,” Milroe said. “You can’t point out one person, it’s all about collectively as a group being our best us, and just executing the simple things. That’s going to allow us to be the best version of ourselves and be the best offense we can be. It’s just simple execution that we fall back on. Looking back on the tape it was little small things that we were not executing. That’s all we need to do.”