What Nick Saban learned about Jalen Milroe over last two weeks

Alabama has played three quarterbacks in its last two games, with Jalen Milroe returning to the starting role after the Crimson Tide played Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson at South Florida.

During his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked what he learned about Milroe’s mentality after the USF game and the Ole Miss win.

“I think he learned some things, we all learned some things by playing other quarterbacks,” Saban said Thursday. “We learned what they could do. We could make a good evaluation of what’s the best way for our team to move forward relative to who plays quarterback, and Jalen understood that, exactly what we were doing. He responded the right way to it, and it was obvious that he’s the best guy for us to be able to move forward as a team.

“We have to do things that he can do because he’s a great athlete, he’s a good passer. But we have to do things that he can in his growth and development so that he can be successful.”

In his return, Milroe threw for 225 yards, one touchdown and one interception while completing 80 percent of his passes (17-of-21). He also rushed for 28 yards on 16 attempts but saw 36 of those yards wiped away because of sacks and losses. In the 24-10 win over the Rebels, Milroe used his legs on more designed runs than in the first two games of the season.

On Wednesday, Saban was asked if Milroe’s threat to run forces defenses to play zone.

“I think that’s one way to look at it,” Saban said. “I think because of his ability to run, sometimes people run three guys and spy a guy. Sometimes they rush four guys and spy a guy. So that should be helpful in terms of us being able to protect better. I think when people play man-to-man and everybody turns their back, there’s opportunities to make plays if you can beat them one-on-one. But there’s also opportunities to take off. 

“So everybody’s gonna have a different philosophy of how they want to play when it comes to how do we control the quarterback. Some may even say we’ll just rush five or six guys and make him be a passer. So you never know how a team is going to approach that, and we could see various things throughout the course of the year.”

His running ability is one of Milroe’s biggest strengths, but he has also been deadly with passes down the field through the first four weeks. Against Ole Miss, he had six plays of 20-plus yards, including a 33-yard touchdown to freshman receiver Jalen Hale. He still needs to clean up the interceptions (3 in 3 games), but Saban liked how the quarterback responded.

“One of the things that he had to overcome – and he did in last week’s game – is when he threw an interception against Texas, the first one that he threw, it affected him in the game,” Saban told McAfee. “And when he threw the interception last week against Ole Miss down in the red zone, it didn’t affect him in the game. And that’s one of the things that we’ve been trying to sort of instill in him is you can’t be affected. 

“When you play quarterback, you’re gonna make a lot of good plays and you’re gonna make some not-so-good plays sometimes, but you’ve always gotta play the next play and you’ve gotta refocus. And you don’t have to press.”

As he has before, Saban likened the quarterback position to a point guard in basketball, at least from a mentality standpoint. That’s how Milroe needs to play, and the starter is aware of that.

“I think the key with being a point guard is just doing everything to put our offense in the right form as far as being able to succeed, no matter what it is,” Milroe said Monday. “Whether it’s handing the ball off, throwing the ball – just being a leader on the field, directing whatever the play may be in the right direction. And honestly, just acknowledging what’s at hand and attacking every moment. 

“Just trying to lead the offense in the best ways possible, which is the standard that he wants it to be. I think that’s what the point guard that he talks about, that’s what needs to take place for our offense to succeed.”

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