The offense won Alabama football’s annual A-Day game handily on Saturday, beating the defense 34-28, despite the defensive Tide creeping back in late. Kalen DeBoer played four quarterbacks in the scrimmage, deploying returning starter Jalen Milroe, along with backups Ty Simpson, Dylan Lonergan and Austin Mack.

Milroe showed off his familiar arm strength early. He connected with Washington transfer Germie Bernard for the day’s longest pass, 52 yards.

“It’s been great to see him continues to take that next step and have that progression,” DeBoer said of Milroe afterward. “For the last week or so, I think that’s been pretty consistent.”

Milroe completed three of his nine attempts for 100 yards through the air. He finished second on the team, behind Simpson, who connected on seven of his 12 throws.

After the scrimmage, DeBoer had kind words for the redshirt sophomore.

“You saw it, he does a great job back there,” DeBoer said. “You’ve got full confidence with a lot of those guys back there. But Ty, again, he’s just been consistent and gotten better throughout the spring. Never really had any drops in each and every practice.”

Simpson, who competed with Milroe for the starting job last fall, ran with the second team throughout the scrimmage. Afterward, he was given the Bart Starr Most Improved Player award for the spring by Alabama’s coaching staff.

“You see what he does out there,” DeBoer said. “He’s accurate, he knows when to put touch on it… He’s got good awareness.”

Lonergan was third on the team, completing eight of his 12 passes for 67 yards. Mack went six-for-nine, for 33 yards.

Overall, UA threw the ball 42 times, completing 24 of the passes for 302 yards. DeBoer praised the entire group’s pocket awareness.

“I feel like all of the quarterbacks did a better job of pushing the pocket at the right time,” DeBoer said. “That’s something I know we’ve been emphasizing, rather than just sitting back there and letting that rush on the edges get to you.”