Milroe’s development as a quarterback helped catapult Alabama into the College Football Playoff. His rapid progression as a weapon at quarterback paralleled the improvements the Alabama football team showed this season. Rees talked about the importance of the two building a relationship.
“For Jalen and I, the relationship building over months has been really positive,” Rees said. “He’s an unbelievable human being. He’s an unbelievable kid. Like the way he’s able to face adversity, the way he’s able to push through things, the standard he holds himself to, like those things probably started with his parents. He’s done an unbelievable job throughout the season of staying true to that. I think an underrated quality is just the humility he has to want to get better and to want to be the best version of himself.
For us as a coach, that’s refreshing because he wants all those things. You’ve got to kind of find ways to lighten the mood every once in a while with players. Can you get him to laugh? Can you get him to calm down? Can you get him to feel relaxed and comfortable? Then I think the thing we’ve been able to do throughout the season is as you start building the system around the quarterback, it gives the quarterback a lot of confidence, and then when they start to have some autonomy in what you’re doing, it gets greater buy-in from the player. I think that’s all part of the growth, and that shows trust and belief in the individual, which ultimately then can help bring the best out of what they have.”
