Nick Saban takes pressure off Alabama QB Jalen Milroe following loss to Texas
The quarterback is the star of the team and that's as true and peewee football as it is in college football and the NFL.
As such, though, there's a ton of pressure on the quarterback's shoulders. He's the engine that makes the train run. When the quarterback plays well...chances are the team plays well and wins. When the quarterback struggles, though? Well, all bets are off.
Then, the pressure is on.
That's the situation Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe could have found himself in after the Crimson Tide's 34-24 loss to Texas this past weekend. Milroe was sacked five times and threw two interceptions against Texas, which essentially negated his two touchdown passes.
He was arguably one oft he main reasons Alabama lost and it was the type of loss we don't often see the Crimson Tide take.
Don't tell that to Saban, though, because he told Pat McAfee that it wasn't as much a Milroe thing as it was an Alabama offense thing. Milroe's just there to keep the train on the tracks. He needed other players to step up around him as well.
“I think that the quarterback position probably always gets a little too much credit when things go well and they probably also get a little bit too much criticism when things don’t go well. That’s sort of the nature of the beast, and everybody needs to understand that,” Saban told McAfee (h/t On3).
“But I think the quarterback position is like every other position, if you want security in your position you have to play well. And that’s what every position on our team and every player on our team, that should be their mindset."
“So what do you have to do to correct the things you didn’t do well and give yourself a better chance to create value for yourself in terms of how you play, but also that’s going to benefit the team. And I think one thing about the quarterback position is you gotta be the point guard, you’re the point guard first, you’re gonna distribute the ball each and every play and you’re not the shooting guard,” Saban continued to explain. “So you don’t have to worry about making plays or forcing plays, you have to worry about distributing the ball to the right guy and not turning it over.”
The turnovers will certainly hurt Milroe's status with Saban if they continue, but the head coach is right, there was more to the story against Texas than the quarterback throwing it away.
Alabama's normally stout running game rushed for only 107 total yards, 44 of which came from Milroe. The Tide were also only 5-of-14 on third down, which is a unit stat, and they committed 10 penalties for negative 90 yards. Six of those penalties were on the offense and two negated touchdowns.
“If the people around you don’t play well quarterback may be the most difficult position in ball to play, in any kind of ball," Saban said. "So we gotta get the people around the quarterback to play better and we can’t have so many drive stoppers."
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