TAMPA, Fla. – If this was the top for Jalen Milroe at Alabama, it could actually’t be how or the place he wished it to finish.
Missing the 12-team playoff and taking part in a day undercard within the ReliaQuest Bowl towards unranked Michigan, Milroe had three turnovers in a wet first quarter and noticed a last-minute game-winning shot finish with 4 consecutive incompletions in a loss for 19-13. to the Wolverines.
“It’s really an honor to put on the ‘A’ each Saturday, win or lose. I do not take it evenly in any respect,” Milroe mentioned after the sport, noting that he wished to give attention to the sport and never reply particulars about his plans for the longer term . “It was a tremendous journey.”
It’s by no means a superb factor when, in the identical recreation the place you are requested for those who’re leaving for the NFL Draft early, your head coach can be requested what he thinks your bench appears to be like like.
“I assumed there have been nonetheless a variety of good performs that he made,” first-year Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer mentioned. “I noticed, I assume, a fighter, the combat in his eyes, you realize. As lengthy as I see that, I need to keep there with the blokes that this program means lots to.”
Milroe adopted an extended line of Alabama quarterbacks below Nick Saban whose school success led him to go excessive within the draft, from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa to Mac Jones to Bryce Young. A yr in the past, Milroe completed sixth in Heisman voting, throwing 23 touchdowns towards six interceptions. This yr he took a step again, with 16 touchdowns towards 11 interceptions. Alabama was ok handy Georgia one in all its two losses, but in addition dangerous sufficient to lose to Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and now Michigan.
Tuesday’s loss dropped Alabama to 9-4 for the season. The final time the Crimson Tide did not win no less than 10 video games was means again in 2007, Saban’s first season.
In a recreation the place Michigan — a defending nationwide champion that wanted a powerful end simply to turn out to be bowl eligible — had its finest prospects out of the sport, Alabama had its greatest skills nonetheless taking part in .
But the sport began disastrously for Milroe, first with a turnover on downs after getting a fourth down simply previous midfield. Milroe then had three turnovers in a span of 4 performs, every of which set Michigan up with drives that began within the crimson zone. The Wolverines led 16-0 earlier than the top of the primary quarter, regardless of having simply 43 yards of whole offense.
The rain stopped, Milroe modified his sneakers and his recreation improved. He had a landing cross within the second quarter, then a 41-yard run and a 40-yard throw within the remaining minute earlier than halftime to arrange a area objective. But he ended up getting sacked 5 occasions, so regardless of that 41-yard run, he completed the day with 7 yards on 16 carries whereas finishing simply 16 of 32 passes for 192 yards.
He set himself up for an enormous comeback, with a 25-yard cross to Michigan’s 15-yard line within the remaining two minutes, solely to have 4 consecutive incomplete passes to permit the Wolverines to flee with the victory.
DeBoer praised his quarterback for his angle after the loss, saying he performs the proper means even when he comes up quick.
“When you are the quarterback of a soccer staff, eyes are at all times on you, particularly once you’re at Alabama,” DeBoer mentioned. “You’re going by some ups and downs over the course of the season. Sometimes he takes on a heavy burden. He stays the course. … The combat in him, the power to maintain going, everybody will make a mistake right here and there I assumed it was a This is an space the place he is actually improved, particularly within the final half of the season, and I feel our guys admire that.”
If Milroe had been to enter this yr’s draft, he can be someplace within the second tier of a usually weak QB class, with early projections having him as a second-day, second- or third-round choose. Top school quarterbacks are coveted in right this moment’s world of NIL and the switch portal, so it is attainable he may obtain profitable gives to complete his school profession elsewhere.
Milroe spoke confidently after the sport about Alabama’s future — with out committing to being part of it himself — saying that regardless of a uncommon dip in wins, the expectation of success stays at an all-time excessive.
“We have a variety of nice guys within the locker room who’re hungry, who’re attempting to get higher and preserve the requirements,” Milroe mentioned.
Whether he will likely be a kind of guys within the Alabama locker room sooner or later stays to be seen.
Greg Auman is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He beforehand spent a decade masking the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and the Athletic. You can observe him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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