Saturday’s A-Day at Bryant-Denny Stadium heralded the start of a new era for Alabama’s football program. For the first time in over two decades, famed head coach Nick Saban will not be on the Crimson Tide sidelines. Instead, it will be Kalen DeBoer, the former Washington Huskies head coach who turned his team’s College Football Playoff appearance last year into probably the most coveted coaching position in college football. DeBoer will become the 28th head coach in program history, but there will be no transition time. Championship expectations are just part of the job in Tuscaloosa, but thankfully for DeBoer, he has a fantastic roster to work with this season.
Jalen Milroe, the Alabama football team’s quarterback, began last year as an inexperienced starter but blossomed into one of the most dynamic players in the country by the end of the season. Milroe placed sixth in the Heisman Trophy vote and was awarded SEC Championship Game MVP for Alabama’s victory against Georgia. Now that he has completed a full season as a starter and is led by one of the top offensive coaches in the country, the 21-year-old senior quarterback’s expectations are sky high. But for Kalen DeBoer, Milroe’s work this spring has been all about making small improvements before the season begins.
“It’s something that’s progressed throughout the spring,” DeBoer said on Saturday when asked about Alabama’s offense scoring swiftly on multiple drives in the first half (h/t Spenser Davis of Saturday Down South). “It’s all about timing, confidence, reading progressions, and so forth. And recognizing ‘there’s my one-on-one’. ‘That’s my boy. Where to place the ball. So I believe it has reached this point, and it was amazing to watch him [Milroe] continue to take the next step and improve. So, throughout the previous week or two, I believe it has been very steady. Early on, I can’t say any of the quarterbacks were just dialing in and making those plays.”
Last season, the Washington Huskies averaged over 120 more passing yards per game than Alabama did. A key reason for this massive gap between the two schools was Washington’s ability to create big plays downfield in the passing game. According to Spenser Davis, the Huskies 202 plays of 10+ passing yards were the most in the country last season. Bama was tied for 9th in the SEC in the same category. Of course, this has nearly as much to do with personnel as it does scheme. Yes, bringing Kalen DeBoer in will make Bama a more explosive team in the passing game, but Jalen Milroe just isn’t on the same level as a passer as Michael Penix Jr. was, and Alabama’s receivers weren’t as talented as Washington’s.
Maybe that will change this year. Perhaps come September, DeBoer’s Crimson Tide offense will resemble the Huskies’ offense from last year, with this added twist: Michael Penix Jr. was far from the running menace that Jalen Milroe has proven to be. Last season, Milroe carried for 531 yards and 12 touchdowns, a dynamic that Washington’s offense lacked. Surely, Kalen DeBoer will find the greatest methods to use his Heisman hopeful quarterback, like he did with Penix last year.
