LOS ANGELES — The lineage of Alabama quarterbacks has trailed in recent years from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa to Mac Jones to Bryce Young; first-round pick to first-round pick. This year came something different: a three-way competition in which nobody seized the reins right away. The nadir came over a two-week stretch in September when Jalen Milroe lost the starting job after throwing a pair of interceptions in a home loss to Texas, followed by Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson both struggling in a lackluster 17-3 win at South Florida. That all led to Alabama being ranked an unheard-of 13th as Milroe was given another chance. “I think the biggest thing was to acknowledge that I’m not a finished product,” Milroe told reporters this week. “Constantly wanting to grow in every element of my game, I think that was very important to acknowledge that and embrace hard. “I think that’s something that allows a quarterback to grow, allows a quarterback to be successful as an individual is to embrace hard. That was something I was challenged by the coaching staff, challenged by coach [Nick] Saban, and around me just to embrace hard and embrace the role of being a quarterback and being a leader of the team.” Embracing hard has led Milroe and the Crimson Tide from the depths to the College Football Playoff, where Alabama will face Michigan on Monday in the Rose Bowl, and where its 6-foot-2, 201-pound quarterback has gone from a liability to a point of strength. Milroe even went so far this week as to call out former Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien for a conversation some years back in which O’Brien suggested he might want to find a different position. Asked how that made him feel, Milroe snapped back, “How would you feel if I told you that you suck?” It is true that Milroe does not have the typical build of a quarterback. But he has turned that into a strength by rushing for 468 yards and 12 touchdowns this season in addition to the 2,718 yards and 23 touchdowns he’s piled up in the air. “The guy has always been a great ad-libber as a quarterback in terms of scrambling and making plays when the play breaks down,” Saban said. “But I think he’s gotten so much better at executing the play, reading the play out, getting the ball to the right guys at the right time, distributing the ball more like a point guard and not thinking he has to make every play.” Even as he readies to play on the sport’s biggest stage, though, Milroe still carries with him a discernible edge. “[O’Brien] told me a bunch of positions that I could have switched to, but look where I’m at right now,” he said. “Who gets the last laugh?
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