Kalen DeBoer reveals how close he came to benching Jalen Milroe in what may have been his last game at Alabama
Jalen Milroe will be the first person to tell you he's far from a perfect quarterback. But he will leave the Alabama Crimson Tide as a record holder and one of the most dynamic players to ever wear Crimson & White. Which is exactly why, despite the team's horrible start in their season finale against […]
Jalen Milroe will be the first person to tell you he's far from a perfect quarterback.
But he will leave the Alabama Crimson Tide as a record holder and one of the most dynamic players to ever wear Crimson & White.
Which is exactly why, despite the team's horrible start in their season finale against the Michigan Wolverines, he never wavered on his signal caller, if some were asking about it:
Kalen DeBoer never considered benching Jalen Milroe vs. Michigan
"No, I didn't," said DeBoer when asked if he considered benching Milroe. "I just felt like, there's things he still did. We scored a field goal with him using his legs. We went 95-plus yards in less than a minute. Just that factor and what we needed with him and his mobility added to the run game. I felt like that was the swap right there. The interception early, you want, a lot of those incompletions happened in down and distances that weren't favorable or backs to the wall and have to throw to throw the ball at the end of the first half and at the end of the second here so I know that gets away from you from a completion percentage. But I thought there was a lot of good plays too. I saw the fighter. The fight in his eyes. As long as I see that I want to hang with the guys that this program means a lot to."
Here's the thing. Alabama had four, yes four scholarship players in the WR room against the Wolverines. They had to take a freshman CB and put him at WR just to be able to field a whole unit.
Not to mention, what did this game mean? Oh, that's right, absolutely nothing. It's a meaningless bowl game that scouts, coaches, and NFL personnel won't even turn the tape on for.
So was it a good showing? No. But it doesn't mean you bench the face of your program in what is likely his final game, during an exhibition contest. Even if he struggled.
"Well I think there were some elements that played. I know even the pick, that's a really nice play," added DeBoer on why he stuck with Milroe. "You throw it maybe two inches out further and it's a catch for us. I'm not sure if we run out of bounds there or what there but they made a nice play. You guys were there you saw the elements on the snap. I mean, that's, gotta field it. You can't turn it over. They struggled I think, fortunately for them they had the field position where they didn't really have to press until the rain moved through. That certainly didn't help us and kind of dug ourselves a rut and had to play a little bit different style again, but hats off to our guys that are just at the end of the first half understanding, hey just get one score and one score led to two. Wish we could've done something there, I think at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter where we get maybe a field goal, get some points on the board, put the ball in the endzone."
Alabama's bowl game dud against Michigan left Jalen Milroe looking in the mirror before 2025 NFL Draft decision
The ReliaQuest Bowl against a depleted Michigan team was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Despite 2024 being a letdown campaign for first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer and quarterback Jalen Milroe, winning against Michigan in an expected two-score fashion would've saved some face. Instead, Alabama was a disaster, and Milroe's […]
