One thing I can't help but notice is how different Milroe is treated versus Bryce Young.
With each guy as a two year starter (though Jalen's second is incomplete), here's what we know:
Both guys lost at Tennessee in their first try.
Bryce 1-1 versus Tennessee, Jalen 1-1
Bryce 1-1 versus Georgia, Jalen 2-0
In their first years, Bryce lost in the playoff versus the national champion and Jalen lost in the playoff to the national champion.
Bryce didn't make the playoff at all in his second year. Milroe still to be determined.
Both guys played a ridiculously close game with Auburn their first year in command, requiring insane heroics to pull out the victory.
Both guys undefeated against Auburn
Bryce 1-1 versus LSU. Jalen 1-0 with one game to go... 😬
Folks can get more in the weeds with the comparisons, but for every argument, there's a good counter. (Jalen lost to Vandy, but then Bryce had a far more solidly stable coaching situation. Milroe didn't win a Heisman, but he has set record breaking statistical marks, etc.) Where the rubber meets the road is success against rivals and winning championships. In that regard, the two guys are quite similar and I think it's inarguable that Milroe has navigated it all with college football, and our program particularly, in transition.
So again, why has only Milroe had to endure this crowd of ever-present critics? Why are other QB's allowed their share of mistakes, but each one by Milroe is proof that Bill O'Brien was a genius and that anyone but Jalen should be our starter?
Well here is the thing, Bryce was many things that Milroe never was.
1) probably the most important was he was the heir apparent to Mac Jones in a very seamless transition. Bryce never really had any competition to the job and everyone could see the quarterbacking skills and generational talent that Bryce had.
Milroe on the other hand has always been looked at as “the best we got in the stable†at best or “fill in the blank†at worst. Not even his most passionate supporters could honestly say after the 2022 aTm game that Milroe was the future. So it’s never been an easy transition.
Milroe has never ended the debate between him and Ty. I mean Blake Sims’s situation is eerily similar to Milroe’s in that no one saw him as the successor of AJ while AJ was playing, and then there is a heated competition. But at the end of it Blake pretty much ended the debate on the field whereas Milroe keeps people remembering the guy from the 2022 aTm game.
2) His attitude. Bryce has carried himself more like a typical Saban player in that he is graceful on and off the field and hardly ever makes the situation seem to be more about him than the team.
Milroe on the other hand… I’ll leave it there.
3) I don’t think comparing games against individual teams is a good metric in this case for several reasons. 1 in because those are totally different teams going against each other with totally different skill sets. Because if we are going to go there then it makes Milroe look way worse when you realize that Bryce was going Hendon Hooker in a 90+ game during a loss and Milroe was in a 24-17 two mules and a turnip game in a loss.
The two Auburn games were washes.
And Georgia I would say Bryce factored far more into the outcome in SECCG than Milroe did in his. The rematches are kinda weird in that Bryce was without both his top targets due to injury and Milroe has an insane amount of targets.
But it’s also important to remember… football is a TEAM sport. Yes a quarterback can affect wins and losses more than just about every position, but 90% of wins and losses are because one team is just better than the other.
In summary I think Milroe gets alot more grief because he is nowhere the quarterback that Bryce was, how he carries himself, and just because he has just never won over the fan base.