Jalen Milroe remembers thinking it was going to be a normal day at Alabama football headquarters. It was early January, and the Crimson Tide had just lost their College Football Playoff semifinal game to eventual national champion Michigan. On a fourth down and a decisive attempt, Milroe was stopped on a quarterback run. The Alabama players digested the overtime loss and returned to Tuscaloosa for their usual end-of-season debriefing. Then, immortal head coach Nick Saban, winner of seven national championships, abruptly announced his resignation during a meeting with the team.

“We didn’t know he was going to retire,” Milroe told me in July. “Everyone was surprised. Coaching staff, administrative staff, everyone. It was a surprise to all of us. He did it so quickly that he couldn’t show his emotions. There were no signs of, like, Hey, I’m thinking about it. We didn’t know anything.” Experiencing a historic moment – ​​for college football, but also for the entire American South – made Milroe and his teammates think about the what if. “You always have these thoughts like, man, one more win. We could have…” His voice trails off and it’s clear he’s thinking about what it would have been like to win the Natty as a sophomore, bring a 19th chip to Tuscaloosa and send Saban home a winner. “Yeah, that’s definitely something I’ll remember.”

With Saban gone, it’s up to Milroe (and new Bama coach Kalen DeBoer) to lead the Crimson Tide through the first year of the program’s post-GOAT era. You get the feeling he’s ready to take on the challenge. The Texas-raised quarterback, now in his third year, stands a stocky 6-foot-2 and is wearing a form-fitting black shirt that shows off his impressive physique when we meet. He’s listed as 225 pounds, and if you didn’t know better, you’d think he plays safety. He wears his hair in tight braids and has a tattoo that reads Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”), as well as a sea of ​​other tattoos all over his body. On his right leg, he has a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr., just below a tiger. Barack Obama is tattooed on his left thigh. Just below the knee, Heath Ledger’s Joker wears Milroe’s jersey. It’s clear he’s inspired by greatness, even if it took a while for football’s greats to recognize greatness in him.

Coming out of high school, he wasn’t necessarily considered a surefire prospect — scouting websites had him ranked as the 14th quarterback in a recruiting class that included Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and JJ McCarthy, all top picks in the 2024 draft — and Milroe had to wait his turn to be Bama’s starter. Sitting behind Bryce Young, an eventual Heisman winner and first-round draft pick, was a test of patience. But after Young went to the pros in 2023, Milroe took the reins. After a shaky start (and one game as the second quarterback), he finished the season with an eight-game smash. It wasn’t just what he did, though — it was How he did. A terrific second half to erase a 13-point deficit against Tennessee. Four rushing touchdowns to beat LSU. Then, in the last week of November, in a rivalry game so passionate that an Alabama fan once went to jail for poisoning Auburn’s campus, Milroe delivered the play that will kick off every one of his college highlights from now until eternity.

Trailing by four points, on the road and in a highly hostile environment, a series of errors left Alabama in a situation where it was down to a fourth-and-goal situation at the 31-yard line. The Crimson Tide’s playoff hopes rested on a touchdown, and Milroe had to work his magic. When he caught the snap, Auburn only sent two pass rushers, leaving eight players in coverage and one man guarding him near the line of scrimmage. Milroe backed up a few yards, surveyed the situation, and threw the pass of a lifetime. Receiver Isaiah Bond caught the ball at the back pylon, sealing an improbable victory.