This is an opinion column.

Tuscaloosa’s a long way from Tampa.

Eight days by foot, if the Google Maps app can be trusted but we’re talking more about the abstract here. This is about Jalen Milroe and his journey from the figurative exile on Florida’s west coast to, well, a conversation nobody was entertaining back on Sept. 16.

Because the party on the Bryant-Denny Stadium turf just before 10 p.m. on Saturday night was a lifetime from standing in the Tampa rain. From getting benched a week after losing to the team he idolized as a kid to lifting Alabama back into playoff contention, Milroe’s story arc is starting to rival his Crimson Tide QB predecessors.

That still incomplete yet unmistakably non-linear storyline hit an undeniable milestone Saturday.

It’s simple, really.

Alabama’s 42-28 win over LSU and its white-hot offense was much more because of the Crimson Tide offense than in spite of it.

And for all the Heisman chatter surrounding Tiger QB Jayden Daniels, it was Milroe who jogged to the locker room with considerably more of a tailwind.

The turnaround from the Texas loss and Milroe’s subsequent hiatus in Hillsborough County was stunning. The redshirt sophomore from outside Houston broke an Alabama record with four touchdown runs — the most ever by a quarterback in a single game.

He did it with a confidence not seen amid the inconsistency of the 34-24 loss to a Longhorn team to whom Milroe was once committed. Gone were the two interceptions from that Week 2 setback and diversion that followed.

Milroe was a clean 15-for-23 passing for 219 yards but this game changed on Milroe’s ability to run the ball.

He did it a lot for a change against LSU. The 20 runs were a career high — just three behind his total passing attempts — while the 155 rushing yards were the fifth most among QBs in program history.

That’s a lifetime from standing on the sideline of Raymond James Stadium on the third Saturday of September. There Milroe stood, helmet in hand, watching teammates Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson share the job he held the first two weeks of the season. The trip to face a rebuilding South Florida program offered Alabama to try the next two contestants after Milroe’s uneven night against the Longhorns.

There was a midgame monsoon that felt eerily symbolic during a frankly horrific offensive performance. After that 17-3 win that felt worse than the Texas loss, nobody questioned Milroe’s place in this offense.

So back to work he went, and while less-than-meteoric, the progress is visible even to his biggest detractors. The interceptions decreased. Sacks didn’t and the speed that save last October’s win at Arkansas was suddenly not part of the plan. At 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, he has the speed of a running back with the power of a middle linebacker and all of that was back on display against LSU.

And for all the numbers Milroe posted, Nick Saban mentioned one above the others. He led Alabama to an 11-for-14 conversion rate on third downs. That 78% hit rate was the highest in any Crimson Tide game with 10-plus attempts since the 2012 Iron Bowl against the worst Auburn team in recent memory. Milroe converted five of those with runs — two of which for touchdowns — while three required nine-plus yards to move the sticks.

This was an Alabama offense built more on ball control than the quick-strike, bombs-away approach from previous weeks. In fact, the two longest passing plays of Alabama’s night were dump downs to running backs, a 42-yarder to Jase McClellan and a 35-yarder to Jamarion Miller. Both came on third downs.

“I mean, it’s obvious (Milroe) is much more confident as a passer,” Saban said. “He’s reading things more quickly. He’s getting the ball to the right guy. He’s making good decisions when he has to improvise and those things we want to continue to help him grow and develop.”

Saban said he doesn’t see the same lingering frustration that compounded one bad throw into a series of them.

Context matters too because Milroe was far from the main attraction entering Saturday night. And one could argue Jayden Daniels outshined his QB counterpart for parts of the evening but he was the one who blinked first — throwing an interception early in the third quarter that became the turning point of the night.

It’s a shame Daniels exited under concussion protocol in the fourth quarter because this was a true dual until that point. The senior was 15-for-24 passing with 219 yards, two scores and an interception. On the ground, he set a yardage career-high in the first half alone before finishing with 163 on 11 attempts (14.8 average) and a touchdown.

But this was Milroe’s night.

Where Daniels was climbing in the Heisman betting lines before Saturday, Milroe figures to climb out of the mid-pack with current +10,000 odds.

More importantly, he has Alabama back from the dark side of the moon — or possibly Tampa — after a historic night in Tuscaloosa. This Crimson Tide team could clinch a spot in the SEC Championship Game next week at Kentucky after finding the killer instinct absent from last year’s underachievers.

They’re in this place, in part, because its quarterback survived his Tampa timeout.

Jalen Milroe didn’t fold when he got the hook.

Now he’s got this Alabama team a long way from that swerve into the ditch in a rebound few saw coming.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.