What Jalen Milroe Learned From Bryce Young's 2021 Iron Bowl Performance
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The setting is similar to the Iron Bowl two years ago. Alabama is 11-1. Auburn is 6-5. The game is in Jordan-Hare Stadium the week before the Crimson Tide has a matchup with Georgia in the SEC Championship.
Will Alabama once again be facing third-and-10 from its own 3-yard line down seven points with 1:27 to go? Not if Jalen Milroe's focus on preparation has anything to say about it. But watching how Bryce Young handled that moment was a huge learning point for current Crimson Tide starting quarterback, who was then watching from the sidelines.
"You talk about four quarters, you talk about fourth quarter program, you talk about mental toughness, you talk about willing to compete, you talk about grit– it all goes into that game," Milroe said on Monday ahead of this year's Iron Bowl matchup. "There's many areas where you can see how evident that was. So seeing football in different lenses my freshman year, that's what I saw."
Alabama's season was on the line. The Crimson Tide had already secured the SEC West title by the Iron Bowl in 2021, but if it wanted any shot at the playoff, it had to beat Auburn after experiencing an early-season loss at Texas A&M.
Jordan-Hare Stadium has consistently been a tough place for Alabama to play under Nick Saban. The Alabama head coach has lost more there than any other venue. Coming into the 2021 matchup, the Tide had lost three of its last four games in Auburn dating back to 2013, and it looked like the team was headed for a fourth loss in five trips.
The offense had struggled to get anything going consistently all game as evidenced by zero touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. With all the pressure in the world, Young calmly led Alabama on a 12-play, 97-yard drive capped by a third-down touchdown to Ja'Corey Brooks, which tied the game up at 10-10 with 24 seconds left.
Three separate times on the drive, Alabama converted on third or fourth down. With the late touchdown to send the game to overtime, the team then battled through four overtimes to eventually beat Auburn 24-22 for another epic Iron Bowl victory on the Plains behind the two-point conversion from Young to John Metchie III in the fourth overtime.
"It shows nothing but how great of a leader Bryce Young is," Milroe said. "His mental toughness, willing to lead the offense through every situation. And then, our whole team as a whole. They showed mental toughness, they showed grit, they showed we can finish. They showed all kind of different areas– we talk about naysayers, we talk about people that doubt Alabama as a team– that was an opportunity for us to sustain throughout a game and then push through all external factors."
He would go on to have a strong performance in the SEC Championship game victory over Georgia that cemented his status as the leader, but that game-tying drive against Auburn was considered by many to be Young's Heisman moment.
Milroe currently has the sixth-best odds for this year's Heisman at +12500 according to BetMGM, but there's a pretty sizable gap between the frontrunner, Oregon quarterback Bo Nix at +110, and even a big drop-off from five, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck at +3300, to Milroe at six. The odds aren't in Milroe's favor, but a big game in the Iron Bowl could go a long way towards bettering his chances.
Of course, the Heisman is not Milroe's focus for the week. If there are two things the Alabama quarterback has made clear through his media availabilities this season it's that he's focused on getting one percent better every day and going 1-0 each week. And that started with early film study of Auburn this weekend
"Just trying to prepare for the complexity of their defense, just trying to be as much prepared as possible so I can go into the game, feeling free, and playing my game," Milroe said. "I have been prepared for Auburn. I do see a gritty team and a team that's going to give us their all."
