In the aftermath of Alabama football's 19-13 loss to Michigan in Tuesday's ReliaQuest Bowl, a reporter asked head coach Kalen DeBoer a fair question. A question that many Crimson Tide fans wanted to know the answer to - not just for the one single game, but at any point throughout a disappinting 2024 season.
Did DeBoer consider benching Jalen Milroe?
Even the most loyal of coaches would have had to consider it during the first quarter of the ReliaQuest Bowl, right? Milroe turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions. He fumbled a snap in the rain, threw an interception, and then fumbled on a strip sack. That happened over the course of four total offensive snaps for the Crimson Tide.
According to DeBoer, no, he never considered going away from Milroe:
"I saw a fighter, the fight in his eyes, and as long as I see that, I wanna hang in there with the guys that this program means a lot too."
It was DeBoer's refusal to go away from Milroe today that was costly in this game. It was DeBoer's loyalty to Milroe for the full season that kept Alabama's offense from reaching the level it had the potential to with better quarterback play.
It made sense that Milroe won the starting quarterback job at the beginning of the season. He held the team together and he'd played well enough in 2023 to earn the job in 2024. The season started well enough, including a terrific performance for him against Georgia in the biggest win of the season for the Crimson Tide.
But Milroe's struggles against Tennessee should have started the wheels churning for DeBoer and OC Nick Sheridan. And there's no real excuse for Milroe playing out the full game against Oklahoma in November - not with as poorly as he played and with as little as the offense produced.
So one of two things is true, and neither bode well for the future of Alabama under DeBoer:
Either 1) DeBoer stuck with Milroe out of fear of losing the team if he benched him. DeBoer also may have felt like he owed it to Milroe to stick with him because he held the roster together during the transition from Nick Saban's retirement to now.
But if that's true, it doesn't fully explain the visible frustration shown by Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard as Milroe missed throw after throw and outright ignored an open Bernard on several occasions.
It also makes you fairly question the future of the program and who really is in charge in Tuscaloosa. Does DeBoer have the resolve to make the difficult decisions without fear of backlash from his locker room? Because, more than anything, the locker room wants to win. Or at least that should be the top priority if your culture is what it is supposed to be.
The other option isn't much rosier. Because if it isn't loyalty, then Milroe remaining the starter in spite of his struggles means that Ty Simpson just isn't good enough and the coaching staff felt like it could get worse if Simpson played instead.
That would not bode well for the Crimson Tide next season. Alabama's biggest issue in 2025 wasn't a young secondary or poor offensive line play. Alabama's biggest problem was poor QB play time and time again. And if that isn't improved in 2025, then the Crimson Tide might not be any better next season.
If Simpson isn't the guy, the coaching staff had better be confident than either Austin Mack or freshman Keelon Russell might be for next season. Because they haven't targeted a QB in the portal, and it's hard to believe they wouldn't do that if neither Simpson nor Mack would be good enough to play at Alabama next season.
Milroe's struggles get DeBoer a year-one pass. His hands were tied behind his back for most of the season because Milroe could not execute the offense that DeBoer wanted to run. And Milroe's struggles with reading defenses and processing information directly led to Alabama's issues running the football, too. Because defenses were able to play a certain way and Alabama could never get them out of it by hitting the plays that were there to be made.
But this pass for DeBoer is a one-year thing. Because you're the head coach at Alabama, and if the play at a position isn't getting it done, it's on you to find someone who can be better. If that player isn't on the current roster, then go get someone else.
This is Alabama, and at Alabama, you're only afforded so many mulligans. DeBoer used those up in 2024.