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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Before he ever played a game under Alabama‘s new coaching regime, Jalen Milroe said this preseason that he felt as relaxed, prepared and empowered as he has as a quarterback.
“Even going back to high school. I feel free to be me out there,” Milroe told ESPN.
It’s one thing to make such a proclamation. It’s another to deliver, and Milroe has done that repeatedly for the Crimson Tide through four games, most recently with a dazzling performance Saturday night in a thrilling 41-34 win over then-No. 2 Georgia to vault Alabama to No. 1 in the latest AP poll.
Milroe passed for 374 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning 75-yard toss to Ryan Williams, and rushed for 117 yards and two more touchdowns. In all four games this season, he has passed for at least two touchdowns and rushed for at least two touchdowns. He has completed 72.9% of his passes with just one interception and is second nationally with a 204.7 passer rating.
“He was, I think, exceptional,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said of his redshirt junior quarterback. “I didn’t want to jump the gun, but I just really felt like that the last couple of weeks, and it started with the Wisconsin game, where he got into a little bit of rhythm and made those plays. … It doesn’t mean he’s perfect, but man, he’s a weapon out there and he’s doing it both through the air and with his feet.”
DeBoer isn’t the only one who feels that way.
Milroe is quickly moving up NFL teams’ draft boards, and while the calendar is just now flipping to October, he has also placed himself at the forefront of the Heisman Trophy conversation.
“He’s always been a dynamic athlete, but he’s grown as a quarterback under this staff,” one NFL scout told ESPN. “He looks more comfortable and connected. Last year, he was a great athlete running around and making plays at quarterback. Now he looks a lot more like a quarterback who happens to be a great athlete and is still making winning plays.”
Milroe isn’t one to boast that he called his shot, but he did. He saw this coming after working all offseason with DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, who calls the plays for the Tide, and hasn’t been shy about what it has meant to him to play for coaches “who truly believe in me.”
He said that’s not a dig at former coach Nick Saban, who benched Milroe last season in Week 3 against South Florida after a two-interception performance in a home loss to Texas. Rather, Milroe said it’s an endorsement of the current coaches and the way they’ve given him the reins to go play his way while continuing to polish his game.
“I have a great coaching staff that believes in me,” Milroe said. “I have teammates that believe in me, and that’s all that matters.”
The Milroe-to-Williams connection has been electric for the Crimson Tide, and Williams said all he has had to do is follow Milroe’s lead.
“He’s a tremendous player. He gets better every single day,” Williams said of his quarterback. “I can’t stress it enough. He literally gets better every single day, and that’s everybody because we have that type of environment where if you ain’t getting better, you ain’t looking at the person next to you.”
Milroe finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting a year ago, and Saban said his transformation the last part of the season was the key to Alabama’s march to the College Football Playoff.
But with 18 total touchdowns through four games, Milroe has made strides in areas a quarterback needs to in order to go from being very good to being elite, such as accuracy, trusting his receivers and knowing when to run and when to hang in the pocket and throw. Plus, the plan Sheridan had for Milroe against Georgia was about as good as it gets. Alabama scored touchdowns on its first four possessions. Milroe completed his first 11 passes and carved apart the Bulldogs on the edge with his speed.
“We took the next step,” said DeBoer, whose quarterback last season at Washington, Michael Penix, led the country with 4,903 passing yards and had 36 touchdown passes. “Guys don’t always have to be wide open right now. You saw [Milroe] throwing to guys that were open and the receivers anticipating that, ‘Hey, I’m going to get the ball,’ and that’s progress in our passing game, and if we can keep doing those things, we’ll be tough to defend.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart said the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Milroe “could be the best running back in the country … and he throws the ball.”
It’s a combination that gives opposing defensive coordinators fits.
“You have to pick your poison,” Smart said. “Do you want the guy to take off and beat you running? Do you want to play loose coverage and try to keep eyes on him so he doesn’t take off?”
Georgia’s plan was to make Milroe throw the ball once Alabama moved into the red zone.
“We didn’t have to. He ran around us,” Smart lamented.
No play exemplified Milroe’s explosiveness more than his 36-yard run around the right side, beating Georgia’s Malaki Starks to the edge, that gave Alabama a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter.
“We had our best player on him on fourth-and-1, and he outran him to the sideline and then turned it up and scored,” Smart said. “If you could just stop him and not worry about him throwing it, I think you could do it. But when he’s throwing it well and they’re catching it well, it’s really hard to stop.”
Milroe’s poise and humility in talking to the media late Saturday night didn’t go unnoticed by anybody in the Alabama football complex, coaches and players alike. DeBoer said Milroe’s growth as a leader — and not being up and down with his emotions — has only strengthened the bonds in Alabama’s locker room.
Milroe was sporting a Jalen Hurts’ shirt after the game. Their stories are similar in that they were both benched at one point during their Alabama careers. Milroe nodded reverently when asked about the former Tide quarterback, who finished his college career at Oklahoma.
Hurts, now the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterback, remains extremely popular among the Alabama fans. He was replaced at halftime of the 2017 national championship game by Tua Tagovailoa after the offense stalled in the first half, and Tagovailoa threw the game-winning touchdown pass in the final seconds to beat Georgia. Hurts elected to return to Alabama for the 2018 season, and when Tagovailoa was injured in the SEC championship game, Hurts came off the bench to rally Alabama to a dramatic 35-28 win over the Bulldogs.
“Jalen Hurts is a great person to look at when it comes to handling adversity, when it comes to playing the position,” Milroe said. “I’m a Texas kid. He was a Texas kid, and he was one of the reasons I came to the University of Alabama. If we look back when Alabama played Georgia [in 2018], Jalen Hurts stepped in at the end of the game, so I wanted to represent him today.”
Milroe then looked at the cameras and saluted.
“He’s out there watching. Hey, Jalen Hurts,” Milroe said. “But, nah, I love Jalen Hurts. I think he’s a great quarterback and I just wanted to represent him.”
If Milroe keeps this up, he’ll do more than just represent him. He’ll soon join him in the NFL.