Kentucky Prepares for Explosive Plays from Jalen Milroe

The backup quarterback and the running quarterback give the Big Blue Nation nightmares of past traumatic experiences. For the third straight week, Brad White’s Kentucky defense will face a running quarterback and this time Jalen Milroe is coming off the best start of his career.

In a top 15 matchup between LSU and Alabama, Milroe out-shined Jayden Daniels, who admittedly left the game early with an injury. The Alabama quarterback rushed for a career-high 155 yards and four touchdowns. He also tallied 219 yards through the air while completing 65.2% of his passes.

“(He’s) extremely talented, not just athlete but doing a nice job operating the offense and understanding,” Brad White said Wednesday. “I know everybody can see when the plays break down and his ability in what he can do when he gets out of the pocket, but when you watch the entire season, what he’s been able to do in terms of ball placement and getting it to playmakers, again, he’s playing at a really high level right now.”

That was not always the case. Milroe was benched following a subpar performance against Texas. He took back the reins two weeks later and the Alabama offense has slowly but surely improved every single week.

“They’ve just found comfort and consistency in what they want to do. They’ve sort of found their identity. We’ve talked about that from the start to where we are. Every team is different. Every team identity is a little different. I think it just took them a little while to find that,” White said.

Milroe’s running ability is at the center of the Alabama offense, similar to Mississippi State’s Mike Wright and Tennessee’s Joe Milton. Kentucky contained Wright to 20 yards on 11 carries, but Milton’s legs helped the Vols wrack up 253 rushing yards against the Cats. The Kentucky defense learned valuable lessons over the previous two games.

“He’s an athlete. He’s the second-fastest person on the team, Coach White told us,” said Deone Walker. “They got a great offensive line, two freshmen on their left side… He’s a great athlete. He can make a play whenever he needs it. We just gotta work on caging him, not letting him escape up and out.”

Milroe is a Big-Play Maker

Milroe is kind of like the SEC’s Adam Dunn. He’s either striking out and taking sacks or hitting home run plays. Alabama quarterbacks have been sacked 37 times this fall, more than any other SEC team. They’ve also accounted for 11 passes of 40+ yards, helping Milroe average more than 10 yards per attempt, the second-highest in the SEC.

“It’s a really tough challenge when you’ve got somebody that big, that fast with that good of an arm, with the weapons around him, with the goal line front of them,” said the Kentucky defensive coordinator. “There’s a reason they can put up points in a hurry.”

The foundation of the Kentucky defense is big-play prevention. So what’s the secret to success against Milroe and Co?

“You try to prevent them. You try to cap the defense if you can. You try to not let them over the top of you. But they’ve got a lot of talented athletes with a lot of speed, a quarterback with a big-time arm that can extend with his legs and really create some of those off-schedule plays too that can allow guys to get vertical, get down and create some space,” said White.

“You want the honest answer? Sometimes you just hold your breath when the ball’s in the air. You just hope it’s not a perfect ball. Sometimes you win ’em and sometimes you don’t. The great teams are able to make some of those. The thing is we have to have a short memory if they make some and play the next down.”

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