Nick Saban talks quarterbacks, Jalen Milroe to kick off first game week
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Does Alabama expect to play multiple quarterbacks in its first game?
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban was asked that in his Monday press conference to kick off Middle Tennessee week, but he didn’t divulge much of the team’s plan behind center.
“I don’t have any expectations for that right now,” Saban said. “I mean, we’re going one day at a time. We’re repping the players, and even regardless of what happens in this game – it’s the same thing that I told you guys before. Just because whoever starts in the first game, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to continue to compete and play throughout the season because the competition doesn’t end with the first game, at any position, including quarterback.
“So my expectation is what can we do to get them better today so that we can play better the next day and the next day and then when the game comes, we’ll be playing as well as we need to be playing to create value for themselves as players as well our team to be able to have success.”
Alabama has five scholarship quarterbacks on its roster for the upcoming 2023 season with two returning players in Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson, a transfer portal addition in Tyler Buchner and a pair of true freshmen in Dylan Lonergan and Eli Holstein. The competition has been primarily between Milroe, Simpson and Buchner during the Crimson Tide’s preseason camp.
Milroe has routinely been the first quarterback in Alabama’s closed scrimmage and could be the first player to trot onto the field for the opener against Middle Tennessee. He has experience in a Crimson Tide uniform, backing up Bryce Young last year and stepping into that first-team role when Young was sidelined by a shoulder injury. Now a redshirt sophomore, Milroe has made “a significant amount of improvement,” Saban said to kick off game week No. 1.
“I think he’s more comfortable in the pocket,” Saban said of Milroe. “I think that he has more confidence in the way he executes and the way he plays. He’s been more consistent in the way he’s played, and I think that’s gonna be the key of the drill for him to be able to maintain that consistency in every practice so that he is developing the kind of habits that are gonna carry over in the game and help him be successful.”
Even if Milroe starts the first game, it’s not a certainty that he’ll be the guy for the remainder of the 2023 campaign. But if someone else emerges, the team has confidence in the unit.
“I think the whole room has had a lot of growth,” center Seth McLaughlin. “Each guy’s gotten a lot better, and it’s been easier playing center, going for each guy, taking reps throughout camp. I’m glad to see the way those guys are progressing, and I think any guy that goes out this week is gonna have a good time and play really well.”
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