Nick Saban Details the Difficulty of Defending Jalen Milroe from Opponent's Perspective
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Jalen Milroe is still very early on in his development as a starting quarterback.
At this moment, there's still not much film on Milroe for opposing teams to sift through. His start in Starkville against Mississippi State on Saturday night will be the fifth start of his young collegiate career.
It will be his first start on the road.
So — what makes Milroe difficult to stop? Alabama head coach Nick Saban details what he sees, from the opponent's perspective.
"I think because of his ability to run, sometimes people run three guys and spy a guy. Sometimes they rush four guys and spy a guy," Saban said. "So that should be helpful in terms of us being able to protect better. I think when people play man-to-man and everybody turns their back, there’s opportunities to make plays if you can beat them one-on-one. But there’s also opportunities to take off."
"So everybody’s gonna have a different philosophy of how they want to play when it comes to how do we control the quarterback. Some may even say we’ll just rush five or six guys and make him be a passer. So you never know how a team is going to approach that, and we could see various things throughout the course of the year."
Through his first four starts, including last year's against Texas A&M, Milroe is 3-1 with 785 yards and nine passing touchdowns — he has four interceptions. On the ground, Milroe has rushed for 201 yards and two scores.
The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are set for an 8 p.m. CT kickoff in Starkville on ESPN.
