Hayes: Jalen Milroe hasn’t truly arrived. How good will Alabama be when he does?

DALLAS — Let’s get this out of the way from the jump: Jalen Milroe has work to do.

“I’m not a finished product,” Alabama’s quarterback said Wednesday during SEC Media Days.

That, more than anything, should be a sweet symphony to the ears of new coach Kalen DeBoer, every Alabama fan from Orange Beach to Muscle Shoals and all points between.

Milroe wants to work. He wants to prove the uncertainty he showed to begin last season — and even the strengths he used at the tail end of it in leading Alabama to the Playoff — aren’t who he is.

He can get better physically, knowing the pounding he will take is a heavy consequence of a dual-threat quarterback. He can get better mentally, knowing a greater understand of passing game concepts and their place in every snap is the difference between beating Georgia for yet another SEC Championship and the season ending on the 3-yard line in the Rose Bowl Playoff semifinal.

And another Playoff run in 2024.

“The day I stop getting better is the day I retire,” Milroe said. “I have so much I can improve on, and I’m really excited about the process.”

It wasn’t so long ago that the process nearly ended his Alabama career shortly after it began. Alabama and then-new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees did everything it could find someone else to play the position in 2023.

It began with legendary coach Nick Saban scrounging through the spring transfer portal and adding former Notre Dame starter Tyler Buchner — who lost the Irish job — to a quarterback room that already included Milroe, 5-star redshirt freshman Ty Simpson and two incoming 4-star high school signees.

That experiment lasted all of one fall camp, when Milroe — over and over during scrimmages and 11-on-11 periods — was clearly the best player on the field. Simpson might have had better potential as a thrower, Buchner might have known Reese’s offense better, but Milroe was the only player of the group who could stress defenses with his arm and legs.

Then the Texas game arrived in Week 2, and Milroe struggled (so did the Alabama offensive line) and the Tide lost by 10 and, for the love of all things houndstooth, what in the world was that?

Then it got worse. Saban told Milroe he was giving Buchner an opportunity the following week at USF, and Milroe wasn’t happy and let Saban know. According to one former Alabama staffer, “the locker room wasn’t happy, either.”

So Alabama rolled into Tampa to stomp lowly USF, and it quickly became a white-knuckle dogfight in the 4th quarter. Buchner was benched, and instead of going to Milroe, Saban moved to Simpson — who wasn’t much better.

But for the Tide defense, Alabama would’ve had its worst loss under Saban since losing to Louisiana-Monroe in his first season of 2007. The very game Saban awkwardly compared to Pearl Harbor.

And now Saban was staring at a powder keg developing in his own locker room.

“We were all the problem (against USF),” Tide cornerback Malachi Moore said. “It’s never one player.”

But in typical Saban fashion, he saw a problem and quickly corrected it — even at his own expense. He admitted Milroe didn’t take the benching (or however he couched it) well, and that sometimes players need to accept decisions and it doesn’t mean they’re final.

Milroe returned the following week as the starter — because, frankly, who else was going to play that ultra-critical position? — and the Tide beat surging Ole Miss. Alabama then won 9 straight, including wins over Tennessee, LSU and eventually No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

It ended a month later at the 3-yard line against No. 1 Michigan, with Alabama needing a touchdown to tie the game in overtime — and relying on Milroe’s legs, not his arm, to get there.

It is here where we reintroduce DeBoer, the man in charge of replacing the greatest coach in the history of college football. And the man who, as coach at Washington, rejuvenated the career of quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

From dangerous dual threat at Indiana, to elite thrower and winner at Washington.

“He makes you think differently about football,” Penix told me last season. “There’s always an answer for everything. You should never be on the field and see something, and not know where to go with the ball.”

So now it’s up to DeBoer and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan to develop yet another raw but uber-talented quarterback who — and here’s is the key — desperately wants it and knows he’s not there.

Milroe, who has the 4th-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, knows the position is more than chucking deep balls to receivers who can outrun coverage. It’s about reading coverages and layering throws and anticipation. It’s about making the easy routine, and the difficult manageable.

“He has a skill set that is special,” DeBoer said. “He’s continuing to to expand on his game with the different throws he can make. He had a high percentage on deep throws, but he has continued to work on higher percentage throws you need to move the chains.”

Milroe walked to dais at SEC Media Days with a black suit and black fedora with a 4 of diamonds card tucked neatly under the brim.

The card, Milroe says, is part of a fashion statement. “How I roll,” he laughed.

Symbolically, the 4 of diamonds is the card of good fortune. The card of courage and strength and the importance of work.

Sounds about right.

“I want to be around guys who push me, who expect the best from you and the best from themselves,” Milroe said.

He’s far from a finished product, all right. And that might be the best thing for Alabama.

Matt Hayes

Matt Hayes is a national college football writer for Saturday Down South. You can hear him daily from 12-3 p.m. on 1010XL in Jacksonville. Follow on Twitter @MattHayesCFB