Familiar face leads QB group while position works with new helmet comms

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As expected, Jalen Milroe took the first quarterback reps at Alabama’s first practice of the Kalen DeBoer era on Monday. The redshirt junior started 13 of the Crimson Tide’s 14 games last season and is the most experienced quarterback on the roster.

But Milroe will have to continue to work to not only learn a new offensive system but to hold off Alabama’s other signal-callers looking for a shot under the new staff. DeBoer discussed that when asked if Milroe was “his guy” or if there is a clean slate at every position.

“You want competition, right? The competition is always gonna be there,” said DeBoer after Monday’s practice. “Yeah, someone had to take the first reps today with the ones when we lined up and we referred to them as that. And Jalen did. So he’s putting everything into it he can, along with the other guys that took those first reps. 

“But I fully expect those guys that are really hungry to be pushing those guys that are ahead of them to be their best. That’s what you want in a football program, and that certainly can be the case here with so many good football players here wanting to get on the football field.”

Milroe is one of four scholarship quarterbacks on the Tide’s 2024 roster, along with a couple of returning players, Ty Simpson and Dylan Lonergan, and one Washington transfer, Austin Mack. The returning players have all been trying to learn the new offense since DeBoer was hired on Jan. 12, while Mack has the benefit of spending a year in it back in Seattle.

An element that could help all four quarterbacks is the proposed NCAA rule that would allow teams to use coach-to-player communications through helmets. The one player with access to a coach would be identified by a green dot on the back of his helmet, and communication would be turned off with either 15 seconds on the play clock or when the ball is snapped.

The rule was proposed on March 1 and can be approved on April 18 – five days after the Tide’s A-Day Game. But DeBoer revealed Alabama is already testing them out in practice.

“We were doing it today, so we had it out there,” DeBoer said. “With supply and demand across the country, we aren’t able to have as many as what the max would be, but we had a couple quarterbacks with that in. I haven’t heard any feedback yet. 

“I think early on there were a couple of times it was hard to hear, one way or another. I don’t think it was too soft. I think it was actually because it was too loud. But I’m sure that will get tested in our stadium at some point.” 

DeBoer continued, “I think there’s a lot of reasons for it that I know it can be positive. I don’t know that it answers all the concerns you might have when it comes to some of the things that people will say it automatically fixes – maybe sign-stealing and things like that. Because I think there are other ways it could go the other way, just with being intentional and trying to get a call and being able to echo it through your defensive headset. I could go on and on with that. 

“But it was good. I think the quarterbacks were just getting used to it, I saw them a couple of times putting their hand up to their helmet and listening, but for the most part, it seemed clean.”

Alabama will be back on the field on Wednesday, March 6, for its second spring practice.

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