TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — We’ll have to wait until Saturday to find out who Nick Saban names as his next starting quarterback. However, we’ve now heard the head coach speak about all four of Alabama’s primary starting candidates behind center.
After answering a question about Jalen Milroe’s development last week, Saban was asked a similar question about Ty Simpson on Wednesday. Earlier this month, he spoke about Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner and his relationship with first-year coordinator Tommy Rees. He also provided an update on true freshman Dylan Lonergan following Alabama’s final preseason scrimmage.
Here’s a recap of what Saban had to say about all four passers.
On Jalen Milroe
“I think Jalen has made a significant amount of improvement. I think he's more comfortable in the pocket. 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 going to 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 going to carry over in the game and help him be successful.”
On Ty Simpson
“Ty has done a really good job. I think all the quarterbacks have made significant improvement. I think Ty has made improvement. I think one of the hardest things to not get involved with is to be outcome-oriented and show your emotions when things don’t go exactly like you’d want them to.
"And that’s one of the things that I think has helped all of our quarterbacks, especially Ty, improve on. Mistakes are opportunities to learn, get better, grow and not get disappointed or frustrated in terms of how it affects the next play. And that’s something that he’s done a really good job of, and I think it’s impacted his execution in a really positive way.”
On Tyler Buchner’s relationship with Tommy Rees
“Tommy knew the guy better than anybody could know him. I mean, he coached him for a couple years. The guy was injured last year, so he didn’t get as much experience. I think he started two games and played fairly well, so we got the opportunity to see that. But Tommy knows him better than anybody else could. I think you always know a player when you coach them. You know what his strengths. You know what he needs to improve on. I still think that he’s probably getting comfortable with the system. There’s some new terminology in it.
"And I think he’s probably still getting comfortable with the players around him because the other guys have been with those guys a little more. But I do think there’s really good competition at the position.”
On Dylan Lonergan
"He's done really well. He's shows great ability, great potential. I think that the thing that he needs is experience. Everyone says 'What's experience?' What's your ability to self assess, I have better ability to self assess right now when I did when I was 18 [years old]. How do you learn how to do that? Through experience.
"You have experiences, you make mistakes, you mess up and say 'Well, I'm never going to do that again'. That's how you learn and progress, so he's a talented guy and certainly a guy that we want to continue to try to develop but he's done a nice job so far in camp."
