Entering the 2023 season, Jalen Milroe was one of three competitors for Alabama football’s starting quarterback gig. Nick Saban trotted out an anecdote about his grandmother’s cake-baking talent to describe the race, as Milroe battled with Ty Simpson and Tyler Buchner for the role.
Fast forward a year and the Texas native finds himself in a totally different situation under new head coach Kalen DeBoer. Besides being the unquestioned starter entering preseason camp, Milroe became one of the most feared players in the SEC on the way to finishing sixth in Heisman Trophy voting last season.
One of his Auburn foes even compared him to the eventual winner at SEC Media Days in Dallas.
“He can do it all,” defensive lineman Keldric Faulk said. “He can use his feet, he’s physical. He’s built different. He doesn’t look like an average quarterback. Playing against him was similar to playing Jayden Daniels. He’s 6-3, 6-4 and built like a tank. Preparing for him this year you have to do that very cautiously. He can throw the ball, he can run it. He can do about all of it.”
Faulk watched Milroe beat his Tigers on a miraculous 4th-and-31 touchdown pass in November. Auburn wasn’t the only SEC rival to get cooked by the now-redshirt junior.
Arkansas saw Milroe go off for two passing touchdowns, and another on the ground in Alabama’s 24-21 October win. Linebacker Landon Jackson said the quarterback’s rushing ability is what made him most dangerous to opposing defenses.
Jackson and the Razorbacks got an early taste of Milroe in 2022, when he spelled an injured Bryce Young and led the Tide to a win in Fayetteville, rushing for 91 yards and a touchdown in the process.
“He’s real good when he’s running,” Jackson said at media days. “If you don’t have somebody spying him, you’re messing up because he could easily look, nobody’s open, take off, and he can fly. Two years ago when they came to Arkansas, the dude may have rushed for 200 yards on us. The dude can really move.”
That’s not the only fear when facing Milroe though. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound signal-caller rushed for 531 yards and 12 scores in 2023, but his arm keeps defenses honest, representing a major deep deep threat.
He went for 2,834 yards and 23 touchdowns through the air last season. Three of those scores and 234 of the yards came at Kentucky, where linebacker D’Eryk Jackson faced Milroe.
“His IQ of the game,” UK’s Jackson said when asked what made Milroe dangerous. “He can throw the football. Everybody looks at his legs, he can also run, but he’s got good accuracy in the pocket, (more) than most people give him credit for.”
Milroe and the Crimson Tide faced a real challenge against Texas A&M in October. The Aggies sacked Milroe six times and picked him off once.
TAMU had a chance to win right up until the end, but the Crimson Tide prevailed 26-20 in College Station. Milroe threw for 238 yards and two scores in that game.
The quarterback’s ability to press on through the hard times impressed Aggie linebacker and fellow Texan Taurean York.
“He’s a tough guy,” York said in Dallas. “I feel like we got a lot of hits on him. We got a lot of pressures on him, and I know it was one time we hit him and they had to call a timeout, but I saw him warming up and he didn’t miss a play. I always tell people about Jalen Milroe is that he’s a tough, solid player.
“He’s Texas-made so obviously he’s not soft. But the way he responded to adversity, even leading up to our game, what all he had to go through, I have the utmost respect for Jalen Milroe.”
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