Jalen Milroe is quarterbacking Alabama as they enter a new era, with Kalen DeBoer as their head coach following Nick Saban’s retirement earlier in 2024. It’s going to be a pivotal first season on the job for DeBoer, and a lot of Alabama’s dreams will be on Milroe’s shoulders. As the summer rages on, the freshly-minted Crimson Tide leader is doing everything he can to let his quarterback feel comfortable leading the charge in Tuscaloosa.
“It’s been great. You know, everything’s a process. So you know, initially, with having him here, you know, whenever he got here, and then until now, it’s been great for us. Great as a team,” Milroe said, via Next Up with Adam Breneman, regarding his relationship with DeBoer. “One thing I can say about having Coach DeBoer here, just the personal aspect of it with him, and as a quarterback, he’s offensive-minded. I’ve been able to grow, each and every day, with him as our head coach. Love being around him. He’s been a great person around me. You know, he speaks belief into me every single day. He speaks about how confident he is in me.
“As a player, that’s awesome, to have a coach that believes in you. That makes you want to play even harder, for him and the team. So he’s been awesome thus far. Super excited for what the future holds for our program.”
One of the major differences Milroe has noticed in DeBoer as opposed to Saban is the looseness he wants his quarterback to play with. One glaring example stood out to the Alabama quarterback, as he thought back on a ball he threw in practice.
“It was funny because at practice, you know, I threw a really good ball,” he said. “I threw a really good deep ball down the field and a really good pass and everyone was celebrating. I was looking at the sideline to get the next play and the next signal. I get done with my rep and coach DeBoer comes to me like, ‘hey, what happened?’ I look down and he’s like, ‘I thought you was celebrating running down the field.’
“I was like, ‘Coach, I was just worried about the next play.’ He’s like, ‘well I want you to celebrate. I want you to be excited. That was a really good pass.’ I was like, ‘all right, this is different,’ He gave me a pat on the back and said, ‘that was a good play, be excited.’ I was like, ‘wow, this is different.’ That just changed my perspective. I was like, ‘all right, bet.’”
Milroe has a ton of swagger as a player, and Kalen DeBoer’s job is to help bring it out. That’ll help Alabama win football games, and that’s going to be the bottom line for the Crimson Tide in 2024.
The post Jalen Milroe on transition to Kalen DeBoer: ‘He speaks belief into me every single day’ appeared first on On3.
