Alabama: Nick Saban Feels 'Really Good' About QB Tyler Buchner's Development

[UAH]

Yes, the OL pass protection was bad. Yes, the Texas DL did a great job.

Milroe isn't checking out of a play or changing protections though. Also, the RB's can't stand their ground on blitz pickup.

Maybe getting Milroe out there was one of those (see, I told you) moments from Saban.

I still don't think Buchner starts vs USF, but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised. If he plays, I hope he takes care of the ball and checks out of bad matchups.

Still has me worried that Milroe won the job, so I'm not sure what to expect behind him.

Personally I could care less about Buchner starting. He couldn't start at Notre Dame and has a high probability of never being higher than on a 3rd tier NFL practice squad for about one week. Milroe is likely years away from being a pro style QB but may become one in time because of his athleticism. If Milroe can calm his mind, move his feet in the pocket to avoid the the defender at his feet as Matt Wyatt describes, and have a play from the booth that gives him a safety valve, he can begin to have some success. It is very difficult to win against good team with a QB and Offensive Coordinator on training wheels. Long season ahead for a team who needs a large dose of confidence.

 

[davefrat]

Personally I could care less about Buchner starting. He couldn't start at Notre Dame and has a high probability of never being higher than on a 3rd tier NFL practice squad for about one week. Milroe is likely years away from being a pro style QB but may become one in time because of his athleticism. If Milroe can calm his mind, move his feet in the pocket to avoid the the defender at his feet as Matt Wyatt describes, and have a play from the booth that gives him a safety valve, he can begin to have some success. It is very difficult to win against good team with a QB and Offensive Coordinator on training wheels. Long season ahead for a team who needs a large dose of confidence.

One concerning thing is that Rees was the one who was tasked with developing Buchner at ND, wasn't he?

I know it's only a sample of 14 games played, but these numbers are pretty bad.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Personally I could care less about Buchner starting. He couldn't start at Notre Dame and has a high probability of never being higher than on a 3rd tier NFL practice squad for about one week. Milroe is likely years away from being a pro style QB but may become one in time because of his athleticism. If Milroe can calm his mind, move his feet in the pocket to avoid the the defender at his feet as Matt Wyatt describes, and have a play from the booth that gives him a safety valve, he can begin to have some success. It is very difficult to win against good team with a QB and Offensive Coordinator on training wheels. Long season ahead for a team who needs a large dose of confidence.

This is not very good statement at all.

1. TB was injured in 2022... when he came back he went 18/33 for 273 with 3 TDs and 3 INTs. It was gusty performance.

2. TB didn't have talent surrounding him at ND... Alabama WRs room is way better than ND WRs.

3. I really do not like the NFL ceiling comparison because that is unfair and unnecessary. I saw last week one of NFL team has a back up QB who went undrafted and had zero offers straight out of high school and now he's a back up for a team.

4. I think people has been harsh on Milroe/Buchner for a while and It's getting tiresome... Milroe can and will improve as a passer. He has the talent to reach his potential, whether it's here at Alabama or somewhere. He will be fine. Buchner has showed significant improvement since he came to Alabama and he started at the bottom of depth chart and worked his way up to potential starting spot tomorrow game. It's not indicator of the QB being bad. It's an indicator of Buchner improving and is actually better and maybe that is good for the offense. Let's stop predicting 3, 4 losses and complaining what will happen this season and just learn to enjoy the season for once.. enjoy the game.. stop complaining.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

One concerning thing is that Rees was the one who was tasked with developing Buchner at ND, wasn't he?

I know it's only a sample of 14 games played, but these numbers are pretty bad.

View attachment 36801

Don't look at that. You have to look at bigger picture:

Rees was working with his hand tied back, because of injuries at QBs, lack of talents around the offense, and look at who they played.

 

[davefrat]

Don't look at that. You have to look at bigger picture:

Rees was working with his hand tied back, because of injuries at QBs, lack of talents around the offense, and look at who they played.

I'm not sure that any of those factors really have much to do with Buchner's development.

What's your take on why Milroe and Simpson haven't developed beyond where they are now?

 

[JustNeedMe81]

I'm not sure that any of those factors really have much to do with Buchner's development.

What's your take on why Milroe and Simpson haven't developed beyond where they are now?

The point: He hasn't had a chance to really show what he can do last year. Tommy first year and he lose Buchner to injuries. What i'm saying is back off on him until we see him in action tomorrow and I think everyone will be pleased.

Milroe is still raw. Everyone keeps forgetting who he had as OC for two years before Rees came... If he had Dan Eno or any good QB coach that was known for developing, Milroe would be much much much better. Saban should've let BOB go last year and he had plenty of opportunities to do that. Hire a QB coach this past off season and Saban didn't quite do that.

Simpson is early Mac Jones... Focusing on pleasing people, when make mistakes he's hard on himself. Once he figures it out, he'll be fine. Gotta work on his confidence.

 

[davefrat]

The point: He hasn't had a chance to really show what he can do last year. Tommy first year and he lose Buchner to injuries. What i'm saying is back off on him until we see him in action tomorrow and I think everyone will be pleased.

Milroe is still raw. Everyone keeps forgetting who he had as OC for two years before Rees came... If he had Dan Eno or any good QB coach that was known for developing, Milroe would be much much much better. Saban should've let BOB go last year and he had plenty of opportunities to do that. Hire a QB coach this past off season and Saban didn't quite do that.

Simpson is early Mac Jones... Focusing on pleasing people, when make mistakes he's hard on himself. Once he figures it out, he'll be fine. Gotta work on his confidence.

Back off what?

It's not as if I attacked the young man, all I did was point out factual statistics.

Re Milroe, it's okay to blame his lack of development on coaching but it's not okay to question whether coaching was a factor in Buchner's development or lack thereof?

Re Mac Jones, I don't recall any stories about him being hard on himself over mistakes. In fact, the most widely circulated stories about his early years at Bama related to his cockiness running the scout team...to the extent of chiding Saban about how he was carving up the first and second team defenses.

I'm not aware that lack of confidence was ever an issue with Mac Jones.

 

[Tidelines]

Wasn’t Georgia’s starter , Carson Beck , committed to us for a short while. I know Drake Maye was. Seems we hitched our horses to the wrong wagons.

 

[davefrat]

Wasn’t Georgia’s starter , Carson Beck , committed to us for a short while. I know Drake Maye was. Seems we hitched our horses to the wrong wagons.

I'm starting to wonder if our evaluation process for recruits doesn't need some fine-tuning.

We seem to have an unusual number of players in the last few recruiting cycles who have fallen below expectations.

 

[gman4tide]

I'm not sure that any of those factors really have much to do with Buchner's development.

What's your take on why Milroe and Simpson haven't developed beyond where they are now?

One word...BoB

 

[CrimsonNagus]

The Milroe we saw against the froghorns is the one that coaches have been seeing since the Spring. That is why Buckner was brought in...as a stop gap. But the first game gave the coaches a false sense of reality and drew up a horrible gameplan based on it. JM should have been RPOing from the start of the game along with at least a dozen designed runs. Game planning killed us.

I hope this isn't true because, that means they knew we had a better option but went with someone else in the first game knowing that whoever they threw out there was going to look great because, it was a peewee team. That seems irresponsible.

 

[davefrat]

One word...BoB

Right, so coaching does matter and when players don't develop, that's at least in part attributable to coaching.

If it applies to one coach, it applies to all.

Rees was Buchner's QB coach during his entire time at ND.

Buchner was supposed to be a pretty elite recruit.

Does coaching have nothing to do with where he is in terms of development?

 

[TideEngineer08]

Back off what?

It's not as if I attacked the young man, all I did was point out factual statistics.

Re Milroe, it's okay to blame his lack of development on coaching but it's not okay to question whether coaching was a factor in Buchner's development or lack thereof?

Re Mac Jones, I don't recall any stories about him being hard on himself over mistakes. In fact, the most widely circulated stories about his early years at Bama related to his cockiness running the scout team...to the extent of chiding Saban about how he was carving up the first and second team defenses.

I'm not aware that lack of confidence was ever an issue with Mac Jones.

I think the comparison to Mac is the inability to move on to the next play after a bad one. Mac would have trouble shaking off a bad play - mostly out of anger over messing up.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

A lot of people on other sites seem to think Buchner is getting the start. Guess we'll see.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Wasn’t Georgia’s starter , Carson Beck , committed to us for a short while. I know Drake Maye was. Seems we hitched our horses to the wrong wagons.

Yes both were. But Maye has a lot of family ties to UNC.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

A lot of people on other sites seem to think Buchner is getting the start. Guess we'll see.

Okay, now its basically everywhere. Just got a CBS Sports alert about it.

Sounds like at least for tomorrow Buchner is going to be the starter.

 

[Padreruf]

On the NFL game last night: Justin Jefferson, the #2 rated player in the NFL, was a 2 star recruit ranked @ 308 among all WR's. Go figure that one...

 

[CB4]

Yes both were. But Maye has a lot of family ties to UNC.

Maye’s father played QB at UNC. His mother went there as well. I think he had an older brother on the basketball team at UNC and might have brother on the basketball team at present. I can’t remember. Suffice it to say, Drake is a UNC legacy and, yes we have had some success in the past pulling legacies away from rival schools. However, I was told by someone close to the family not long after his Alabama commitment it probably wouldn’t “hold”. Too much “Carolina Blue” in the family.

All I’ll say about Beck is “let him actually play somebody”. So far UGA has played two games with Beck as the starter against marginal competition. And I doubt USCe gives them much of a fight this weekend. It could be Auburn or Tennessee before UGA (and the rest of us) know what they have. He could be “all that”. Then again he could be “all that isn’t”.

I don’t think anyone here has given up on Milroe. But there is work, a lot of it, that has to be done. But if Buchner has continued to improve to the point of passing JM in terms of understanding and executing the offense, then the only way to find out is give him a shot. And finding out against USF is probably better than finding out next week against Ole Miss.

 

[BamaMoon]

Okay, now its basically everywhere. Just got a CBS Sports alert about it.

Sounds like at least for tomorrow Buchner is going to be the starter.

That's sounds promising. Not that we know Buchner will be better, but that CNS is willing to mix things up!

 

[UAH]

This is not very good statement at all.

1. TB was injured in 2022... when he came back he went 18/33 for 273 with 3 TDs and 3 INTs. It was gusty performance.

2. TB didn't have talent surrounding him at ND... Alabama WRs room is way better than ND WRs.

3. I really do not like the NFL ceiling comparison because that is unfair and unnecessary. I saw last week one of NFL team has a back up QB who went undrafted and had zero offers straight out of high school and now he's a back up for a team.

4. I think people has been harsh on Milroe/Buchner for a while and It's getting tiresome... Milroe can and will improve as a passer. He has the talent to reach his potential, whether it's here at Alabama or somewhere. He will be fine. Buchner has showed significant improvement since he came to Alabama and he started at the bottom of depth chart and worked his way up to potential starting spot tomorrow game. It's not indicator of the QB being bad. It's an indicator of Buchner improving and is actually better and maybe that is good for the offense. Let's stop predicting 3, 4 losses and complaining what will happen this season and just learn to enjoy the season for once.. enjoy the game.. stop complaining.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I might be considering certain things that you are not and likewise with you. I could care less about what you are tired of hearing you don't have to read my thoughts. One thing I try to do to keep it civil and not attempt to demean those who have an opinion different that my own.