Alabama football Jalen Milroe claims SEC superiority, Big Ten loses it

Happy Thursday, everyone. Women’s basketball faces Florida in Gainesville tonight. The Gators are 3-6 in SEC play but beat Arkansas by 30 on the road in their last outing. This is the kind of game in which an Alabama team with eyes toward a run in March needs to handle its business. Tip-off is at 6pm CT on SEC Network.

FanDuel released their 2025 football win total over/under, and it’s not terribly pretty for Alabama.

Schedule-wise, the Crimson Tide has a heavier schedule next fall than many other Power Conference teams. Alabama will play Florida State right away for its season opener on Aug. 30 in a true road game before hosting Wisconsin two weeks later in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide previously went to Madison for the matchup in 2024.

Alabama starts SEC play right after the Wisconsin game, and things don’t get any easier. They’ll be on the road at Georgia for their next outing on Sept. 27 after a bye in Week 4.

The Crimson Tide look to seek revenge against Vanderbilt for last season’s loss in Week 6, and then play at Missouri, vs. Tennessee, at South Carolina and vs. LSU in consecutive weeks giving Alabama no time to take a breath.

Factoring all of this in, Vegas believes 8.5 is the correct threshold to hold the Crimson Tide to during year two of the Kalen DeBoer era.

This is regular season only, but having the over/under set between 9-3 and 8-4 is not what Alabama fans are accustomed to. Georgia and Texas are set at 9.5 to lead the SEC though, so part of it is just the parity in the league. It is very likely that 10-2 will be a highly successful season from here on out.

Jalen Milroe spoke about the difficulty of the SEC on a radio interview yesterday.

Asked to Milroe: “You said the SEC was the best conference in the world. The last two championship teams have been from the Big Ten, and I wanted to ask you if you thought the SEC was slipping a little bit?”

Responded Milroe: “How many ranked wins did the Big Ten teams have prior to making the College Football Playoffs?”

The four Big Ten teams in the playoff — Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon and Indiana — combined for six regular-season wins over top-25 teams.

Milroe: “What was the strength of schedule for the Big Ten? … If you go to the SEC, you’ll see that each and every week, it’s competitive. Each and every week.”

After more back-and-forth with the interviewer, Milroe continued: “I’m letting you know, the difference between other conferences and the SEC is the competitiveness each and every week that you have to play. You don’t have no slack-offs that you can just roll over. … I played in the SEC, I now know what it takes.”

Needless to say, the frozen pasty whites lost their collective minds.

“Jalen Midroe can’t say s**t”, one fan said.

“Sorry but the B1G runs college football,” another fan commented.

“But yeah the team in the Big Ten beat the best SEC team,” a fan argued.

“Yea OK. Big Ten went 6-4 vs the SEC teams this season lol,” another fan said.

There is no question that the Big Ten as constructed is a roughly equal counterpart to the SEC. At the moment, that league is simply a bit more top heavy. The middle class of the SEC was inarguably better than the middle of the Big Ten this past season, and that’s the rub. With the new TV money after the most recent realignment when college football really jumped the shark, more parity in the Big Ten may well come in time.

Milroe was also asked about the possibility of changing positions in the NFL.

But Milroe also experienced some lows. Milroe ended both seasons with losses to Michigan in the postseason. Against Oklahoma this season, Alabama managed only three points. In losses, Milroe often struggled to protect the football.

Despite the ups and downs, there’s no denying Milroe plays an exciting brand of football. He’s often the best athlete on the field. In 2024, he rushed for 20 touchdowns in addition to his 16 passing touchdowns. Milroe also ran for 12 touchdowns in 2023 to go with 23 passing touchdowns.

Moving on to the 2025 season, Colin Gay projects which freshmen could make a big impact this season.

Alabama is not afraid to play freshmen cornerbacks. Brown started alongside Domani Jackson in 2024. Dijon Lee may be that next freshman in line.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound freshman was a tackle machine at Mission Viejo High School in California, one who found ways to make plays even if quarterbacks were not throwing in his direction.

There is a bit of a logjam at corner for the Crimson Tide in 2025, with two solidified starters, and a veteran addition in Utah transfer Cameron Calhoun. But Lee is an athlete that could find his way into Alabama’s defensive backs rotation based on ability alone.

Lee looks the part and very well may find himself a role this season.

Gay didn’t mention Keelon Russell, but the hype train isn’t slowing down on him.

Can’t wait to see him in the spring game, along with the rest of the QBs.

Last, Chris Hummer has a great profile on our original Jalen from Texas.

“In the beginning, Texas was the one,” his father, Averion, told me in 2017.

He attended Texas’ summer camp in 2014 but failed to earn an offer. This was when Charlie Strong was head coach. Instead, Texas went with Shane Buechele — who, coincidentally, ended up on the Chiefs alongside Hurts years later. That recruiting snub shaped Hurts’ mindset.

“They were kind of like that first girlfriend that broke your heart,” Averion said. “They made him mature real quick. He had a different mindset. He liked Texas and everything, they were the first ones, and it was the University of Texas. But he was injured and, all of a sudden, it was, ‘Eh.’ When they went a different route, he understood how recruiting worked. After that he understood it was about taking care of himself and doing the best that he could.”

Alabama saw what Texas didn’t. Hurts committed in June 2015 but didn’t make a big announcement. Elite 11’s Twitter account did it for him.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.