With spring practices underway, Alabama football quarterback Jalen Milroe is expressing his leadership qualities heading into his second season as the Crimson Tide's starter.
Milroe, whose offense is now run by new coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, appeared on "The Paul Finebaum Show" on Thursday ahead of Alabama 's annual A-Day spring scrimmage.
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Milroe was asked about dealing with perceived doubters, as the Crimson Tide shift into a new era after former coach Nick Saban's retirement.
"The only opinions that matter are all of us in the building," Milroe said. "Our coaches, the players within our team, that's all that matters for us. With anything, you're going to have external factors. You're gonna have critics, you're gonna have a bunch of things that are gonna pull you away from your goals and everything like that.
"No matter what, no matter if you win, if you lose, you're gonna have opinions. You're gonna have criticism. And we acknowledge that, we know it's a tough task to go back-to-back SEC Championships, end up back in the College (Football) Playoffs, end up in the national championship. It's a hard grind. And we like that, and we appreciate that, because not too many people can say that they played in the Rose Bowl, say they played in a national championship game.
"And that goes back to the short-term and long-term goal, but now we're in the short-term goals. We're just trying to master the system we have here, master getting to know your teammates, master going to the classroom on time, master taking care of your body (and) nutrition. That's right now, we have goals we want to attack right now to further along any of our long-term goals."
Milroe completed 187 of 284 passes for 2,834 yards with 23 touchdowns last season, while rushing for 531 yards with 12 touchdowns. The redshirt junior signal caller was benched in Alabama's early season loss to Texas , before regaining the role for the Crimson Tide's game against Ole Miss, which he held for the remainder of the year.
Alabama's roster and coaching staff has undergone a myriad of changes since Saban's retirement, with DeBoer only retaining running backs coach Robert Gillispie and defensive line coach Freddie Roach from last season's positional staff.
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Here's the full clip of what Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe said on Thursday:
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Jalen Milroe speaks on Alabama football on 'The Paul Finebaum Show'
