Saban on Jalen Milroe: 'He's got nothing to prove here. Here's our guy'

Alabama head coach Nick Saban went more in-depth into his decision to go with Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson last week at South Florida before turning back to Jalen Milroe this week.

During his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, Saban discussed the moves at the quarterback position. He started off by stating, “the other quarterbacks had very close competition,” but didn’t see many opportunities to play in the first two games.

“We started this conversation with the fact that, ‘Hey, we’re going to maybe look at somebody else playing the position. It may last for a quarter or whatever. But then you’ve gotta get ready to play, and I wanna see you handle this,’” Saban said Thursday afternoon.

“Everybody handles frustrations a little differently. And I think sometimes you’ve gotta direct your frustration, aight, and make it a motivator. You can get upset by it, you can get angry by it, but you can also get motivated by it.”

He continued with an example he heard from one of Alabama’s top guest speakers.

“I always remember Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all-time, and he has three people when he gets into the Hall of Fame – the coach that cut him, the coach that benched him and the guy that took his place when he got benched,” Saban said. “And he said, ‘This directed my feelings for my whole career in terms of how it motivated me to try to be the best player that I could be.’ 

“And we want our players, when these things happen, to direct their feelings in a way that’s gonna help them be better players.”

Saban announced Monday that Milroe will start this week’s SEC opener against Ole Miss after responding the right way and showing the kind of leadership Saban was looking for. While that might not have been the case last week, Saban likes what he has seen in Week 4.

“Jalen did that this week, and I’m pleased with his performance,” Saban said. “He’s got nothing to prove here. He’s our guy. He’s the guy that I have confidence in. I just had a meeting with him a little bit ago – and clean up some fundamental things and watch him play. 

“… I think, in the end, this will make him better.”

Alabama will go with Milroe for its top-15 matchup with the Rebels, while Simpson will serve as the Tide’s backup quarterback, Saban revealed after Wednesday’s practice. He also shed light on the confidence and good faith he has in his 2023 team after a rocky, 2-1 start.

“I do believe in our team, and I think we’ve got a lot of good people on our team,” Saban said. “I think they’ve worked hard. I don’t think we’ve executed and played as well as we’re capable of. So that’s a work in progress and something that we need to improve on and improve quickly. It’s attention to detail, having discipline to do the little things right, creating those habits every day in practice in terms of what you do. 

“So that’s a challenge, and that’s something that it’ll be interesting to see how this responds to that challenge because it’s something that we need to do better.”

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