What Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin said about Alabama QB Jalen Milroe
Alabama head coach Nick Saban made it official on Monday. Jalen Milroe will be Alabama football’s quarterback for the Ole Miss game.
The move came after Milroe battled it out with Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson throughout the offseason, and those two played against South Florida following Milroe’s starts against Middle Tennessee State and Texas. On Wednesday, Saban was reminded of the cake-baking illustration he had used to describe the battle at SEC Media Days and was asked where things stood.
“I think the cake’s been in the oven, out of the oven, back in the oven,” Saban said. “I think it’s ready to go.”
Saban was then asked if Alabama has any plans to use a two-quarterback system against Ole Miss on Saturday.
“We have not considered that,” Saban said on the SEC’s weekly teleconference.
Milroe didn’t play against South Florida, a game in which the Crimson Tide struggled offensively. He shared the SEC’s offensive player of the week award for his performance in the opener against MTSU, but threw two interceptions in the loss to Texas, prompting Saban and company to look elsewhere.
Given the body of work across three games, Milroe was reinstalled as the starter. On Wednesday, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he doesn’t expect to see more than one signal-caller for the Tide.
“He’s already made this switch a couple times already so, knowing him, he’s going to stay this direction,” Kiffin said. “(Milroe is) a very challenging player, one we’re very familiar with, their (old) defensive coordinator (Pete Golding) being there and knowing him and watching him play not just this year, but last where he had played in the A&M game. (Alabama was) the road team coming there and took them down to the last play, so this is a very challenging quarterback to play against.”
Alabama and Ole Miss are set to face off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be aired on CBS.
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