TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Jalen Milroe never put his name in the transfer portal during Alabama’s extended window following Nick Saban’s retirement in January. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t teams reaching out to the starting quarterback in an attempt to coax him into leaving the Crimson Tide.
Friday, Milroe reflected back to that period, stating while he received several offers from teams discretely, he was never close to leaving Alabama.
In total, 10 Alabama players entered the transfer portal following Saban’s decision to retire. Initially, a bit of panic began to spread around the program as the Crimson Tide’s roster was picked apart one by one.
During that time, Milroe turned to a popular Saban mantra.
“The biggest thing about it was not to lean on emotion through the process,” Milroe said. “Just trust the process. And that’s the biggest thing I try to do along the journey. Now that we’re here, I’m just excited because it was all about trusting the process.”
Retaining Milroe was an essential first step for first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer and his new staff at Alabama.
For starters the redshirt junior is the top returning Heisman Trophy vote-getter from last year. During his first season as a starter last year, he completed 65.8% of his passes for 2,834 yards and 23 touchdowns with six interceptions while also adding 531 yards and 12 more scores on the ground.
Milroe is also a returning team captain from last season. His leadership off the field played a huge role in Alabama keeping the majority of its roster in tact throughout a tense transitional period this offseason.
“Obviously, Jalen’s presence on our team is impactful,” first-year Alabama offensive Nick Sheridan said when asked about the importance of bringing back Milroe this offseason.
Despite his impact, Milroe will still need to fight to retain his starting spot in Alabama’s new offense. Earlier this week, DeBoer revealed that the redshirt junior opened spring camp as the team’s first-team option behind center. However, Alabama has plenty of capable options nipping at his heels.
The Tide returns two talented passers in redshirt sophomore Ty Simpson and redshirt freshman Dylan Lonergan. It also brought in Washington transfer Austin Mack, who enrolled early last year to learn DeBoer’s offense during his first season.
Milroe doesn’t seem fazed by the competition and knows he’ll have to continue to develop in order to keep his role.
“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.”
So far this offseason, that’s involved working with DeBoer, Sheridan and senior offensive analyst Mitch Dahlen on improving his passing mechanics. While there’s been plenty of buzz surrounding one of Milroe’s recent training sessions released on social media, the quarterback claims his throwing motion hasn’t changed much this offseason. Instead, the focus has been on fine-tuning his game in order to allow him to take the next step as a passer this fall.
“That’s one thing during the offseason I’m trying to do,” Milroe said. “Just be the best passer I can be, the best passer in the country. That’s the ultimate goal, and something we’re going to continue to do now that we’re in the offseason.”
Milroe’s progression will also require him to improve his pre- and post-snap reads Alabama’s new offense will require the quarterback to take on more responsibilities behind center. He’s looking forward to that challenge as well, stating he’s eager to take part in a scheme that produced two of the nation’s top passing attacks the last two years.
“There are a lot of things that we can do to be explosive as an offense and be the best offense in the country,” he said. “I'm excited because there's a lot of things this offense can offer. And all we want to do right now is master it. We’re going to be ready.”
