Alabama football began its first spring practice under new coach Karen DeBoer on Monday. Many things are changing, but at least one thing remains the same. It's a competition.
Does that apply to every position? DeBoer was asked Monday night if every position would be a clean slate every year. He was also asked, “Is that your guy?” I'm referring to quarterback Jalen Milroe.
“We want competition,” DeBoer said. “There's always competition. Yeah, today someone had to take the first rep in that rep. We lined up and called them that, and Jalen did. He was with the other reps. “These are the players who took the first reps. I'm hoping that the players who are really hungry will bring out the best in the players before them. That's what you want in a football program, and that's certainly the case here.'' There's a lot of great football players on the football field here. ”
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Milroe returns after the 2023 season, where he was the main starter for most of the season except for the game against South Florida. He was named a permanent team captain and All-SEC second team. Milroe had 23 passing touchdowns and 12 rushing touchdowns.
He heads up a quarterback room that returns Ty Simpson and Dylan Lonergan, but also added Austin Mack through the transfer portal. Mack spent the 2023 season in Washington.
This means Alabama will have a redshirt junior in Milroe, a redshirt sophomore in Simpson, and two redshirt freshmen in Lonergan and Simpson. Simpson was Milroe's primary backup in 2023.
Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, covering Alabama football and men's basketball. Contact us at nkelly@gannett.com or follow us @_Nick Kelly on the social media app X, formerly known as Twitter..
