Jalen Milroe is quickly creeping up on two full seasons as Alabama football‘s starting quarterback, and if you throw in the experience he gained as a redshirt freshman in 2022, he’s pretty much there.
His UA career has now spanned 22 starts, and he’s come out the victor in 18 of them. He’s done so despite pass protection that has, overall, been suspect for much of his playing time under two head coaches and three offensive coordinators. Still, he’s got hardware in the trophy case in the form of a 2023 SEC Championship.
Here’s what he doesn’t have: a road win over a good team. And that’s a hurdle the Crimson Tide needs its quarterback to clear in the worst way on Saturday at LSU (6:30 p.m. CT, ABC). The Tigers (6-2, 3-1 SEC) don’t look like national championship contenders by any stretch, but they’re plainly better than any team Milroe has ever felled in a road setting.
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A quick review of Milroe’s career SEC road trials to date:
Oct. 1, 2022: A 49-26 win at Arkansas, started by Bryce Young, who exited with a shoulder injury, and finished by Milroe. The Razorbacks finished 7-6 and 3-5 in SEC play.
2023: Road wins over Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Auburn, who finished the season 5-7, 7-6, 7-6 and 6-7, respectively. They were a combined 11-21 in league play, and two of them fired the head coach at season’s end.
2024: An impressive Milroe performance against an unimpressive Wisconsin team that is now 5-4 and tied for seventh place in the Big Ten standings, followed by road losses at Vanderbilt and Tennessee.
Milroe’s win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game last season has been the high point of his career to date, and he overcame four sacks to shine in an awfully big moment. But winning on a neutral field with half the crowd clad in crimson isn’t the same as knocking off a championship contender in its own building, where hostile SEC home crowds outnumber the visitor’s ticket allotment by a ratio of up to 20-1.
The fourth-year junior, of course, can only face the schedule in front of him. He won six of the eight aforementioned road games, and only one of them — at Tennessee three weeks ago — would qualify as a really nasty customer. It was Milroe’s first truly stiff road test ever, and he struggled.
LSU, fighting for a chance to reach the College Football Playoff, will be his second.
It’ll take more than just a strong performance from Milroe for Alabama to win and maintain its own hopes of reaching the CFP’s 12-team field. UA’s pass protection must hold up, its running game must play a complementary role, and the Crimson Tide defense’s recent string of takeaways can’t afford to disappear.
But for Milroe, it’s a chance to mark his career in a way that he never has before.
And for his team, the fate of a season hinges on the outcome.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
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