It hasn’t been the smoothest of early seasons for Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe.
After throwing for two interceptions in a 34-24 loss to Texas, head coach Nick Saban decided to sit Milroe for Alabama’s Week 3 win over South Florida. Saban gave the backups a shot to prove themselves, and in the process, Milroe proved himself to be a leader. He handled the benching well and earned the starting job back against No. 15 Ole Miss, leading the Crimson Tide to a 24-10 win.
It wasn’t just Milroe’s leadership that changed after the benching, though. According to Saban, Milroe has also worked on his attitude during games — specifically his attitude after throwing an interception, which he did against the Rebels.
“One of the things that he had to overcome, and he did in last week’s game, is when he threw an interception against Texas, the first one that he threw, that affected him in the game,” Saban told Pat McAfee on Thursday (h/t On3). “And when he threw the interception last week against Ole Miss, you know down in the red zone, it didn’t affect him in the game. And that’s one of the things that we’ve been trying to sort of instill in him is you can’t be effective — when you play quarterback you’re going to make a lot of good plays and you’re going to make some not so good plays sometimes — but you’ve always got to play the next play and you’ve got to refocus and you don’t have to press.”