COLUMN: An Age Of 'Resilience' Dawns In Tuscaloosa

*This is an opinion column*

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, beloved off the field for his infectious personality and beaming smile, had a rare look of humility and deep reflection on his face in the chaotic moments after the Crimson Tide's 28-14 win over Auburn Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.

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After exchanging a hug and some words near midfield with Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze, the redshirt junior from Katy, Texas, was flanked by minders as he jogged to the south end zone of Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where he was met with thunderous cheers from Tide fans soaking up the rivalry win to cap off a turbulent regular season.

You'd have never thought his offense surrendered four turnovers and seemed to be on the ropes at times during a rivalry matchup with a team that, by all accounts, has struggled at just about every turn this season.

When Milroe returned to the tunnel on the opposite end of the stadium a few minutes later, he held up an "L" with his right hand to signal a phrase — née, a mantra — that's become his literal trademark: "let all naysayers know" or LANK.

No. 4 giving his respect to the fans in what might be his last game at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. pic.twitter.com/xuc0GfhyIa
— Ryan Phillips (@JournoRyan) December" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/JournoRyan... 1, 2024

If one omits the turnovers Saturday night — a big omission, sure — Milroe still put up over 300 yards of total offense and scored three touchdowns in what could very well be the last time he steps on the field in Tuscaloosa wearing that crimson jersey. He's already graduated with his bachelor's degree, is incredibly marketable and has every logical reason to enter the NFL Draft while his stock is so high.

Say what you want about individual performances or moments but scoring 30-plus touchdowns in the regular season in any conference, much less the SEC, isn't chump change that happens by accident.

Yea Alabama Director of Content Aaron Suttles said Milroe "had tears in his eyes in the locker room" after he left the field, having never lost to Auburn. To this reporter, it stands as a testament to the legacy of a young man who many have tried to count out at every turn.

What's more, I'd even argue that no Crimson Tide quarterback in the last two decades has lived walking on egg shells with Bama fans quite like Jalen Milroe.

The confidence in Jalen Hurts, for example, waned well after he had established himself and he left as soon as his welcome was worn out as guys named Tua and DeVonta burst onto the scene.

Blake Sims caught some flack in 2014 during his one season as a starter after losing to an Ole Miss team coached by Hugh Freeze but went on to win the SEC Championship and lost in the Sugar Bowl to Ohio State. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in Tuscaloosa who would talk as ugly about Sims as some of the things I've heard said about Jalen Milroe over the last three years.

Indeed, this last year has been an emotional rollercoaster for Crimson Tide fans and players alike, going back to January when longtime head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement after 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa.

A few months later, it was a surreal moment standing backstage at ESPN's College GameDay set on a rainy Saturday morning before the Georgia game as Coach Saban was escorted in to take his new throne as the appointed darling of the sport's most popular show.

The news of Saban's retirement also resulted in the transfers of safety Caleb Downs, the reigning Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award winner, and receiver Isaiah Bond, who was the hero on the other end of Milroe's pass to win the 2023 Iron Bowl — acclaimed artist Daniel Moore even immortalized the moment in a painting.

In the wake of Saban's retirement, though, many wondered where this would leave Milroe, who had overcome so much adversity to win the adoration of Tide fans as he led Alabama to a Southeastern Conference Championship Game win over a juggernaut Georgia squad last season and then on to the College Football Playoff Semifinal, losing to eventual national champion Michigan.

After all, first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer brought a completely new approach to the program when he was hired in January, including his own quarterback from Washington, Austin Mack, who some on the fringes seemed to think early on could challenge the Heisman Trophy hopeful for the starting job.

This didn't come to pass, obviously, and Milroe topped most Heisman frontrunner lists in the days following Alabama's 41-34 win over Georgia to open SEC play this September.

For a time, he was the hottest player in college football other than maybe Colorado's two-way sensation Travis Hunter and was even one of the cover athletes for EA Sports' "College Football '25" video game, along with Hunter and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.

The national narrative around these student-athletes was set several months before they entered fall camp and folks in this part of the country were proud as hell that Jalen Milroe was among them. It was to be an era of optimism with an offensive-minded coach like Kalen DeBoer and there was no reason to doubt it.

But like the football program in the twilight of Saban's tenure and the transition to the Kalen DeBoer Era, many will remember the ups and downs faced by Milroe going back to his first career start in 2022 at Texas A&M. For whatever reason — maybe it's the incredible standard of success set by Coach Saban, one that even exceeds the accomplishments of Bear Bryant — folks seem to overlook so many of his stellar performances and tend to bring up the few times where he came up short.

Brought in for the injured reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young, Milroe's first notable action ended with a narrow win that saw him log the second-most passing touchdowns in a starting debut for an Alabama quarterback.

Regardless of the potential Milroe showed as a redshirt freshman that season, the turnovers in that game still set the stage for the doubters to call for his head with every incompletion, wounded-duck pass or turnover.

While it probably wasn't fair to Milroe, criticisms were abundant as he tried like hell to fill the shoes of the most decorated quarterback in school history. And despite logging plenty of signature wins since that regrettable night in College Station, the "naysayers" persisted in their calls to kick Milroe to the curb at the first sign of adversity.

And sometimes, the naysayers probably felt vindicated in their criticisms.

Riding high off the win over Georgia the week prior, fans were stunned and incensed in early October when Alabama lost a shootout on the road to Vanderbilt — a perennial bottom-dweller who'd not beaten the Crimson Tide since 1984.

Coincidentally, it's worth noting this Alabama team was coached by Bear Bryant's successor and I would imagine folks had a similar reaction when the program was dealt such a blow to its longstanding reputation.

Even Mike Shula, the former Tide quarterback, son of an NFL icon and probation-era band-aid that preceded Nick Saban, was undefeated against the Commodores.

So were forgettable names that came before Shula, like Dennis Franchione and Mike DuBose.

Still, the criticisms of DeBoer — mostly over his wardrobe, G-rated vocabulary, ice cream trucks at practice and the shortcomings of his coordinators in big games — pales in comparison to what Milroe has faced over the years following each loss. This season there's been even less patience granted for a quarterback having to adjust to a completely new system and coaching staff.

The loss to a talented Tennessee team in Knoxville certainly didn't help his cause but Milroe and Co. still managed to circle the wagons to pull off a signature win in a big night game in Baton Rouge against LSU. At the time, many felt the Crimson Tide had turned a corner and had their feet under them after such a seismic culture shift for the program.

But an uncharacteristically poor showing on both sides of the ball on the road at Oklahoma followed, resulting in Alabama nearly being shut out in a 24-3 loss to the Sooners that caused many to forget the resume-strengthening wins over Georgia and LSU as they renewed their calls from the Peanut Gallery for a change at quarterback.

I'll even admit that I was one such critic in the final quarter of the Oklahoma game. I mention this because, while I was never even close to Jalen Milroe in terms of talent, I played quarterback in high school and am fully aware of how important it is to protect your signal-caller's confidence from embarrassing themselves by desperately forcing interception after interception as the clock winds down.

This is where I'd argue that Kalen DeBoer doesn't get the proper credit for not just being a good coach but a decent man and someone who truly knows what his players are capable of.

Indeed, instead of lamenting the numerous mistakes and four turnovers in Saturday night's sloppy Iron Bowl win, DeBoer focused on how far the team has come in his first year and how much his quarterback has overcome with so much on his shoulders.

"We talk about resiliency for our team and I think that's a good word to use for [Milroe]," DeBoer said during his postgame press conference. "It's hard being the quarterback of any football team and I think it's hard being a quarterback of a team in a program that expects to win every game."

A good coach at any level has a keen awareness of the aspects of the game that are easily overlooked and unseen by most novice fans and DeBoer's handling of Milroe's ups and downs underscores this notion.

The playcalling hasn't always been the best this season, far from it at times if you ask me, but sticking with the leader you inherited amid so much external pressure speaks to DeBoer's understanding of what it takes to win and build upon an already established culture of success.

This leads me to believe that there was no way to win other than with Jalen Milroe at quarterback and, like it or not, Alabama finished DeBoer's first year undefeated at home and is still technically in the conversation for a playoff spot despite three SEC losses.

After tying the Alabama record for most wins in a debut season, DeBoer should be commended for how he handled the players who decided to stick it out with the Tide instead of entering the portal and chasing stacks of NIL money at other schools.

The only difference, and it's a big one, is that Kalen DeBoer isn't Nick Saban and doesn't command the same degree of patience from the fans as his illustrious predecessor. Considering the thirst for instant gratification in this strange new world of college football and NIL, DeBoer has no prior connections to the program and thus isn't even likely to get the same slack provided to Ray Perkins when he replaced Bear Bryant.

So for DeBoer to stick by Milroe through good times and bad speaks volumes about how this new coach with a funny name views such a job.

"I know there's always a play or two that you always want back but [Milroe] just continues to stay the course," DeBoer said. "I thought him coming back after a couple plays there in the fourth quarter and making some big third-down throws ... and I thought throughout the course of the game that even the [passes] that were incomplete, I thought he put them in a pretty good spot and so was just really proud of the way he played tonight and continued to be resilient, continued to just stay the course and help us win the football game."

Standing on the field as fans cleared out while players and coaches exchanged pleasantries, I was reminded of another moment at the very beginning of the Kalen DeBoer Era that gave me a lot to think about.

It took me back to a frigid January night when the university's private plane touched down at the Tuscaloosa National Airport and seeing Crimson Tide football General Manager Courtney Morgan step off the plane with Coach DeBoer.

A mostly unknown personality in Tuscaloosa before this year, Morgan was instrumental in holding together a recruiting class forged first by Nick Saban and on the verge of bleeding out into the NCAA Transfer Portal after his retirement became official.

If there was an unsung hero for this schizophrenic season, it's Courtney Morgan.

Indeed, he was one of the first guests on the "New Wave" podcast hosted by freshman receiver Ryan Williams and freshman defensive back Jaylen Mbakwe, where he reflected on that flight to Tuscaloosa.

On the podcast, he remembered how he told Coach DeBoer that their top priority had to be keeping Williams, one of the most highly touted recruits in Alabama history, from transferring after Saban's retirement.

Whatever Morgan and others did appears to have worked and Crimson Tide fans were treated almost immediately to a weekly highlight reel from one of the most electric players in the program's history.

Some even compared such a cultural impact, like the touchdown pirouette from Williams during the Georgia game, to Julio Jones breaking onto the scene with that iconic touchdown reception against LSU in 2009.

And when the clock struck 0:00 in the stadium Saturday night, one of the first people to embrace Coach DeBoer was Morgan in a moment that seemed to bring all of the highs and lows of their season in Tuscaloosa into perspective.

The team was loaded with talent when DeBoer took over, sure, but if any Bama fan expected his first season in Tuscaloosa was going to result in a statue on the Walk of Champions, then I'm not sure they have an opinion worth listening to.

I was reminded of this again when I brushed by Ryan Williams as he walked off the field Saturday night. The 17-year-old superstar was taking in the victory and likely didn't even notice me snapping pictures of him as his wide eyes scanned the scores of fans still cheering in the stands.

It gave me hope that Williams sees what he means to the program and its fan base, as he is sure to be looked to as one of the unquestioned leaders of the team after his freshman season.

And if there was any player to use as a poster child to build out this new resilient era of Crimson Tide football, it's Ryan Williams.

Maybe I'm too much of a Crimson Tide homer or too addicted to the "hopium" that comes with growing up in the shadow of that vaunted stadium. But when reflecting on the theme of resiliency for this program, I can't help but think that this season might still have a chance — especially after massive upsets Saturday for contenders like Clemson, Ohio State and Miami.

"I don't know the exact stats but I know we beat four Top-25 teams throughout the year ..." DeBoer said during his postgame press conference when asked by AL.com's Nick Kelly about the possibility of Alabama still earning a College Football Playoff bid. "So when you talk about the schedule and what it is week to week, it's just a grind and having to come back every week, that's the only conference that has to do that is ours."

So I say let's toast to hope and resiliency as we keep that Crimson Flame burning.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The opinions expressed in this column are in no way a reflection of our parent company or sponsors. Email news tips to ryan.phillips@patch.com.