Nick Saban reveals how Jalen Milroe continues to develop, gain confidence with each game

Alabama QB Jalen Milroe has come a long way from the start of the season to now with a month left to go. That’s because, to Nick Saban, his quarterback has slowed down and focused on what’s ahead rather than what’s already behind.

Saban credited Milroe once again during his weekly appearance on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday. He sees a more confident and consistent player in Milroe because of how he has learned to accept his shortcomings and move on from them in time to make the next play for the Crimson Tide.

“From Jalen’s standpoint? He has had a really good week. I think he’s gaining more and more confidence. He’s also gaining the ability to stay focused on the next play and not get frustrated in terms of what happened on the last play,” said Saban. “Staying in the moment is, really, the most important thing you have to do in games like this. You’re not going to play a perfect game, you’re not going to hit every throw. You’ve got to learn from the last play, focus on the next play, do what you have to do to make that play work, and not be affected by it.”

“As soon as you create this expectation for yourself? You’re just setting yourself up to get frustrated if you don’t reach that plateau. Jalen has gotten better and better and better, in my opinion, at being able to play one play at a time and being able to stay focused, even if he has a bad play,” Saban said. “Stay in the right mindset to execute the next play. Don’t think you’ve got to do something crazy because he messed up on the last play. He has gotten better at that. I think that has helped his consistency but I also think his confidence is a lot better as well.”

Saban also thinks Milroe, as well as the rest of ‘Bama’s team, is ‘handling hard’ better this season. When moments of adversity hit, he believes they’re all taking it in stride and not letting it get to them.

“How do you respond to hard?” asked Saban. “We had a really good team last year but, if you look at it? When we got right down to the end of the Tennessee game or at the end of the LSU game? We didn’t handle hard very well.”

“If you want to be a really good team? You’ve got to be able to handle hard well,” Saban said, “When things get difficult? That’s when you’ve got to be able to stay focused and be relentless in how you go about doing your work.”

Over his past five games, Milroe has continued to maintain his stability when it comes to his impact and numbers. In that stretch, he has completed 68.4% of his throws for 1,168 yards, eight touchdowns, and just three interceptions. He has also rushed for three more scores which, when you crunch the numbers, puts him at just under three touchdowns for every one turnover.

These are lessons for a player and quarterback to learn in their first opportunities to learn. With them under Milroe’s belt, Saban needs him to continue to lean on them in order to be at his best when he faces No. 14 LSU this weekend.