$1.6M NIL-valued Jalen Milroe reveals the exact moment that nudged him toward Nick Saban’s Alabama - “You ain't got to sell me nothing"
Nick Saban's last season with the Crimson Tide was one to remember, and Jalen Milroe was central to it. Alabama started the season in crisis mode, as in Week 2, they fell to the Texas Longhorns at home in spectacular fashion.
In Week 3 versus the USF Bulls, the Tide struggled to get a 15-14 victory with backup quarterbacks Ty Simpson and Tyler Buchner filling in for the benched Milroe.
From then onwards, Saban managed to coach the team from the verge of a crisis to an SEC title victory over the Georgia Bulldogs. Through it, Jalen Milroe looked like a new player, especially in the Iron Bowl victory 27-24 over Auburn and the victory over the Bulldogs in the SEC title game.
Milroe had at one point considered attending the University of Texas. Appearing on "Bussin' With the Boys," Milroe revealed the reason why he chose Alabama. According to the story, during the 2020 NFL Draft after Tua Tagovailoa was selected, Saban rang him up:
"Saban called me and said 'Hey you come here this will be you in the next' So I was in junior high school... That's some commitment... You ain't got to sell me nothing"
It was this attention to detail and interest in his development that made Jalen Milroe de-commit from the Texas Longhorns and switch to Alabama. With that, Milroe became the last quarterback ever to be coached by Nick Saban.
Jalen Milroe's NIL deals
Milroe surely reaped the benefits of becoming Alabama's starting quarterback. His $1.6 million earnings from NIL deals puts him seventh in On3's rankings overall, while placing him fifth among college football players. With two hundred thousand followers on his Instagram account, he is a highly sought-after figure at the moment.
His most recent deal was with whey protein brand Six Star Pro Nutrition.
Jalen Milroe on Jim Harbaugh's Michigan win
The Alabama quarterback also touched upon the sensitive topic of whether the 2023 national champions, Michigan, cheated their way to the title. It's well known that one of the members of Jim Harbaugh's staff was investigated and found guilty of scouting ahead of the hand signals used by other schools.
Here's what the Alabama quarterback said about it:
"It don't matter, they won. They won. It don't matter, they won"
He was also asked about the underwhelming last play of that fateful game against Michigan when he and the rest of the Crimson Tide were unable to pull through:
"We'll never know, I'll be real like, that truly made me really love the coaching staff because you can see how much they believed in me. It is probably one of the most impactful plays of our whole season. And the ball's in my hands on the last play of the game. That speaks a lot about our coaches that believe in me. So I took it as a positive although we came out short."
Milroe will enter the 2024 season as one of the top quarterbacks in the nation at the collegiate level.