Jalen Milroe wants to leave the team.
Jalen Milroe explain why he wants to leave Alabama Crimson Tide for Tampa Bay Buccaneers…
A few Alabama players have tried to beat Jalen Milroe to the team’s athletic facility. So far, no one has taken the redshirt junior’s title as the Crimson Tide’s earliest riser.
During last month’s NFL Scouting Combine, former Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold said he and Milroe used to hold “Kobe Bryant” competitions to see who could show up first for workouts. Arnold would occasionally get to the Tide’s facility around 5 a.m., an hour and a half before team workouts started. By that time, Milroe was already well into his grind.
Alabama receiver Kendrick Law said he’s tried to race his quarterback to the weight room on a couple of occasions only to experience a similar outcome.
“I heard he gets here at 3-something in the morning,” Law said when asked about Milroe last week. “I mean, I’m not getting up that early, so he’s going to win every time.”
This spring, Milroe might find himself in a more prominent competition as he looks to retain his spot as Alabama’s starting quarterback. Last week, first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer revealed that the redshirt junior is opening up camp as Alabama’s first-team option behind center. However, Milroe will have to fend off one of the nation’s deepest quarterback rooms to keep his job.
Alabama returns redshirt sophomore Ty Simpson, who fought hard with Milroe for the starting job last season. It also brings back redshirt freshman Dylan Lonergan, who shined in last year’s A-Day game before drawing positive reviews in his first year with the program. In addition, Alabama is welcoming in Washington transfer Austin Mack, who enrolled early last year to learn DeBoer’s offense during his first season.
If anyone in that group ends up unseating Milroe as Alabama’s starter, it isn’t going to be because they outworked him. He’s making sure of it.
“The biggest thing for me is constantly improving,” Milroe said. “I’m nowhere near a finished product. So every time I enter the building, all I want to do is improve and get better.”
Milroe’s first-team reps aren’t the only thing that signifies his spot as Alabama’s QB1. The returning team captain is one of the biggest voices in the Tide’s locker room and has continued to serve as a role model for his teammates this offseason.
“J-Mil, he’s a great leader,” running back Justice Haynes said. “He leads all the time. He leads by example. He’s the first one here in the morning. He’s going to lead. He’s going to grind. The work that he puts in, I love it. We push each other. During 4th Quarter, we were right there neck-and-neck pushing each other like ‘How bad do you want it?’”
Milroe wants it bad, and that’s not hard to see.
“If I walk past the coach’s office, he’s in there,” Law said. “If I walk past him in the locker room, he’s either on his tablet or something, looking at the plays, trying to learn.”
Milroe enters the season as the top returning Heisman Trophy vote-getter from last year. After early struggles led to him getting benched in Week 3, he rebounded to start the remainder of the Tide’s games, completing 65.8% of his passes for 2,834 yards and 23 touchdowns with six interceptions while adding 531 yards and 12 more scores on the ground.
That production came in a much different offense than the one Alabama will run this fall in DeBoer’s first year. The Crimson Tide’s new scheme will now require more from its quarterback, both in terms of throwing ability as well as recognition of the defense.
Milroe acknowledges that there will be differences, but at the end of the day, he thinks the same principles that made him successful so far in his career will carry over.
“There’s a lot of things that are asked for a quarterback, but No. 1 is just about leading the operation and being confident,” Milroe said. “Whether it’s post-snap or pre-snap reads, there’s a lot of things that we can do to be explosive as an offense and be the best offense in the country.
“I’m excited because there’s a lot of things this offense can offer. All we want to do right now is master it so we’ll be ready.”
Last season, DeBoer’s Washington offense ranked No. 12 nationally, averaging 462.1 yards per game. The majority of that came through the air, as the Huskies piled up 5,155 passing yards with Michael Penix Jr. behind center. While the Heisman runner-up shares a different skill set to Milroe, Alabama’s coaching staff is confident it can put together similar success if the redshirt junior retains his starting role for the Tide this fall.
“He’s an extremely talented kid,” Alabama offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan said of Milroe last week. “I think more than anything, he’s just a great person. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him and his family. Obviously, everybody knows the talent, the explosiveness as a passer. Obviously, he’s very electric as a runner as well. … But if you ask me how confident I am, I say very.”
While praising Milroe for his ability, Sheridan maintained that there’s still “a lot of work to be done” for the returning starter and the rest of Alabama’s quarterbacks as they look to master the new offense over the next few months.
