Jalen Milroe will not be college football's leading passer and it will not matter

If Jalen Milroe qualified with a minimum of 15 passes thrown against Western Kentucky, he might have the nation's highest passer rating. Calculated on his 7-for-9 performance, his current rating (Passing Efficiency Rating) is 374.4. The official national leader is Washington State's John Mateer at 335.7. Officially, after Week 1 the SEC's best is Ole Miss Rebel Jaxson Dart at 272.6.

There are two important things about this particular stat. Until midseason, the numbers will have too small of a sample to warrant much attention. Jaxson Dart with a passer rating of 272.64 and Payton Thorne with a rating of 253.56 competed in Week 1 against Furman and Alabama A&M defenses. Dart might be able to maintain a high rating against real competition, but Payton Thorne will not.

More importantly, measuring Jalen Milroe solely by his passer rating provides an incomplete picture. As Nick Saban explained during the offseason, no SEC quarterback challenges defenses at the level Jalen Milroe does.

Early Perspectives on Jalen Milroe and other top QBs

After Week 1, Tom Fornelli 'Power Ranked' college football's top quarterbacks. Fornelli explained his rankings are not based on stats, saying "I'm ranking quarterbacks based on the 'juice' they have at the current moment in time. It's a combination of how well you're playing, what you have accomplished and what you might accomplish in the near future." He also excluded QBs whose teams lost.

Fornelli ranked Carson Beck, Cam Ward, and Jalen Milroe as No.1, No. 2, and No. 3. Fornelli's top three are sound choices and most Alabama football fans will likely agree. He did mention that Milroe was loose with the ball a couple of times against WKU, but everything else he did far outweighed those miscues.

After Milroe, Fornelli ranked other SEC QBs: Quinn Ewers (No. 5); Nico Iamaleava (No. 6); Jaxson Dart (No. 8); and Diego Pavia (No. 10). Five more FBS QBs were included as honorable mentions, but none are on SEC teams.

Joel Reuter writing for Bleacher Report, took a deeper dive, ranking college football's top 25 quarterbacks. Reuter selected nine SEC QBs in his Top 25, with Jaxson Dart No.1 and Jalen Milroe No. 2. Others from SEC teams are Carson Beck (No.5), Vandy's Diego Pavia (No. 12), Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava (No. 16), Quinn Ewers (No. 18); Auburn's Payton Thorne (No. 21), Mississippi State's Blake Shapen (No. 22) and Oklahoma's Jaxson Arnold (No. 25). Reuter added a watch list of 25 Honorable Mentions, that included from the SEC, LSU's Garrett Nussmeier and Arkansas Razorback, Taylen Green.

Why it does not matter if Jalen Milroe is never No. 1 is simple. Winning a National Championship without an elite quarterback is not the norm, but it happens. The last three National Champions succeeded without an elite quarterback. If the new Alabama Crimson Tide defense is an improvement over last season (and after one game, it appears to be), then Jalen Milroe will need to be very good, but he will not need to be one of college football's leading passers.

Jalen Milroe might become the nation's leading passer, but that's not a requirement for an Alabama Crimson Tide National Championship. He will likely finish high in passing stats, but for the Crimson Tide, that will be cake-icing.