This season, Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe emerged as a star for the team, ultimately leading them to an appearance in the College Football Playoff national championship game. And it sounds like he used some doubts from a former coach as motivation.
Jalen Milroe said that former offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, who coached the team in 2022 but left to join the New England Patriots ahead of this season, told him that he shouldn’t be playing quarterback, and revealed that he has used that as motivation ever since.
“All my life, even when I was in college,” Milroe said in late December. “My own offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien told me I shouldn’t play quarterback. So there’s a lot of things I can have motivation on, and that’s something I have motivation on.”
Milroe acknowledges that he did still learn a lot from O’Brien, but he doesn’t forget that O’Brien doubted him.
“The biggest thing, for me, is that I try to learn and grow as much as possible,” Milroe said. “Never dwell on any situation but you can use anything as motivation. You also got to acknowledge what’s the thing that you learned through your process.
“I learned a lot of things with Coach O’Brien being our offensive coordinator with his knowledge of the game. With him being a head coach in college and also in the NFL. So, I don’t take that lightly being coached by him. But everything is motivation. We try to use it to fuel you in your journey.”
O’Brien recently became the offensive coordinator of the Ohio State Buckeyes. If the Crimson Tide potentially meet Ohio State in the College Football Playoff next season, it could be a revenge game for Milroe.
