Alabama QBs Bryce Young, Jalen Milroe Share Moment Following Narrow Win over Texas A&M

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — While the week leading up to No. 1 Alabama football's game against Texas A&M was certainly long for Crimson Tide fans as they waited in anticipation to see who their starting quarterback would be against the Aggies, it was certainly longer for Jalen Milroe.

After Heisman Trophy-winner Bryce Young went down in the second quarter at Arkansas with a shoulder injury, Milroe took to the field and led Alabama to its fifth win of the season. While Young's injury was revealed to be minor, his status was still kept at day-to-day throughout the week, keeping the possibility that he would have his first collegiate start against the Aggies on the table.

Come Saturday morning, Milroe still didn't know whether or not he'd be the starter, but as the day progressed, he soon found out.

"The biggest thing was just the preparation to be the starter for this week," Milroe said. "Starting on Monday and then each day at a time trying to take it all in. I found out today, and I was ready to go."

Sure enough, when 7 p.m. CT came about inside of a packed Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night, Milroe was out on the field as the Crimson Tide's starting quarterback.

It was at that moment that Milroe said he had to stop and remember all of the preparation that he had gone through over the past week in preparation to be the team's starter.

"Staying calm, cool, collected," Milroe said. "One play at a time — that mentality. Getting the guys to play our Bama Standard like we like to say at Bama. And the biggest thing was just all 11 guys just trying to stay on page, and I have the opportunity as the quarterback to try do that as much as possible."

Milroe finished the game against the Aggies completing 12 of 19 passes for 111 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. On the ground, he also ran the ball 17 times for 83 yards, but fumbled the football twice.

Overall, though, a 24-20 win over a quality opponent in his first career start isn't half bad for a redshirt-freshman still learning the ropes. Was the win perfect? Absolutely not, but Alabama head coach Nick Saban saw the win as a learning moment for Milroe.

"I wouldn't evaluate Jalen as a passer," Saban said. "It's relative to how did we protect him, how did we run the routes, how did we get open? And without watching the film I can't tell you if he made the right reads and had opportunities to make throws that he didn't make or not or if we just didn't have anybody open. I think he did a good job making some plays scrambling with his feet, but we had 111 yards passing and that's certainly not our goal so something in the passing game needs to get better.

"And I'm not putting it all on him. I'm just saying we need to do a better job in protection, we need to do a better job route-running and we need to do a better job of being able to make good decisions in the pocket so we don't have negative plays."

After the game, a heartwarming moment occurred on the sidelines when Milroe and Young embraced, with the older quarterback clearly happy for his younger counterpart.

After the game, Milroe expressed how much his moment with Young meant to him.

"The biggest thing I like to say is F.A.M.I.L.Y.: Forget About Me, I Love You," Milroe said. "At the end of the day, I'm not playing for myself; I'm playing for the team and I'm playing for the guys around me and that's the most important thing to me. And I think that's very important for any game moving forward is the family aspect of playing football.

"[...] The biggest think beyond football, me and Bryce are brothers. Take football away, we are brothers. We had a special moment at the end, before the game and then during the week because we're brothers. And I got his back, he got my back. And just like on the sideline, we're talking about the plays, about the scheme and stuff like that. He was engaged with me, saying words of encouragement, so that's my guy."

While the narrow win over Texas A&M will no doubt fuel celebration amongst Alabama's fans as well as its players through Sunday morning, a very tough road trip to face the Tennessee Volunteers looms large on the horizon. Milroe is currently not projected to be the starter, but if he is he believes that he is ready for the challenge.

"I'm happy," Milroe said. "We got the win against a tough A&M opponent. They played very well, and I'm happy. We're gonna turn the tape and then fix whatever we need to fix, but right now I'm excited and I'm happy."

That being said, Milroe is simply going to enjoy his first win as a starting quarterback at the college level. When he and his team walked off the field as victors on Saturday night, Milroe said there were two things he did to celebrate.

"Smiled," Milroe said. "Thanked God. I thanked God."

Check out more game coverage from BamaCentral:

Alabama's Pressure Paid Off Against Texas A&M

Turnovers Prove Consequential in Alabama's Narrow Victory

Jahmyr Gibbs Runs Wild Again When Alabama Offense Needed Him