The incredible rise of Alabama QB Jalen Milroe, from benched to irreplaceable
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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As his laser of a touchdown pass sailed toward the left corner of the end zone last Saturday in Alabama‘s miraculous Iron Bowl win, Jalen Milroe‘s season flashed before his eyes.
In real time, amid the euphoria of the Crimson Tide’s 27-24 victory over Auburn, it was more like a blur.
But as Milroe traces back through the windstorm that he endured to get to where he is now, including being benched for the third game of the season, it’s almost as if it all transpired in slow motion.
The irony is that Milroe is the antithesis of slow motion. He’s one of college football’s most dynamic players — as well as one of its most improved players — and is the cornerstone of Alabama’s transformation into a College Football Playoff contender.
“Seems like a dream, not always a good dream, but a dream that I never quit believing would become a reality,” Milroe told ESPN. “From where I was, the way I was doubted — and even some people in this building [Alabama’s football complex] doubted me — it truly blows my mind to where it’s all led to, and the best part, where it’s led to for our team.”
Milroe, who is rarely without a big smile, slowly shook his head when thinking about all the things he was told he wasn’t along the way, even going back to his high school days.
“I was told I would never be the starting quarterback at Alabama,” he said. “I’ve been told I was not smart enough to play the position. I’ve been told everything. Even when I was named the starter at the beginning of the season, I don’t think a lot of people thought I would keep it, and if I did, that we were going to have a bad season. So, yes, I’ve faced a lot of obstacles. The main thing is the right people believed in me, here at Alabama and within my family, and I remained grounded in believing in who I am.
“That takes you a long way.”
Milroe has indeed come a long way, from being benched against South Florida in Week 3 to delivering one of the most memorable plays in Alabama’s long and storied history — a winning touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond on fourth-and-31 with the Crimson Tide’s national championship hopes hanging by a thread.
“That’s Jalen Milroe,” Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold, Milroe’s best friend on the team, said. “That’s who he’s always been.
“He’s trusting himself now to be who he is. We’ve always trusted him, and you see the way he’s grown. But it’s a lot more than what you see on the field with the way he’s in here at 4:30 in the morning watching film and the last one to leave the practice field.
“People tell those stories about Kobe Bryant. I think people will tell those same stories about Jalen because all that hard work is paying off.”
TWO AND A half months ago, Milroe watched from the sideline at Raymond James Stadium when the epitaph was all but being written on Alabama’s season. The 34-24 home loss to Texas the week prior was still smoldering, and the doom and gloom only worsened as Alabama limped to a 17-3 victory over South Florida, with quarterbacks Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson combining for 107 passing yards and 10 completions in a game that was tied at 3-3 late in the third quarter.
There was a collective “uh-oh” among the Alabama fan base, and the narrative reverberated around the college football landscape: After enjoying a wealth of riches at the most important position on the field — four consecutive starters who would make it to the NFL — Alabama didn’t have a quarterback.
Milroe, admittedly frustrated and disappointed over his benching, turned those feelings into motivation.
“It wasn’t just me. It was this whole team that everybody kicked to the side,” Milroe said. “But I also knew that if we were going to get to where we all wanted to get to, I had to play to a different standard. I had to look in the mirror and say, ‘How can I improve? How can I get better?’ And not just so I could win the position back. It wasn’t about me. It was about being there for everybody else around me, being the best version of me.”
As ugly as the South Florida win was and as vulnerable as the Crimson Tide looked offensively that stormy day in Tampa, it was a watershed moment. Including that game, the Tide have won 10 straight and get a shot at No. 1 Georgia on Saturday in the SEC championship game at Atlanta.
“Sometimes you’ve got to have something bad happen to figure it all out,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “After the Texas game, when we took him out, it was a real thunderbolt or whatever you want to call it, that if you want to be our quarterback, you have to be our point guard. He’s done that, and as he’s gotten better, so has our team.
“We wouldn’t be here without his transformation.”
At one point, Milroe wondered how many opportunities he was going to get this season, as it was clear there wasn’t a consensus on the Crimson Tide’s staff who their best option at quarterback was.
After throwing two costly interceptions in the Texas loss, Milroe was informed by Saban that Buchner and Simpson were going to get their shot against South Florida. Milroe said he probably didn’t handle the news as well as he could have that week in practice, but he kept coming back to one thing.
“It was bigger than me,” Milroe said. “If I wasn’t good enough, then give somebody else a shot. I looked at it as an experiment, but through it all, I was going to be a good teammate.”
Milroe said after being told he wasn’t going to play in the game, he made up his mind that he was going to make a difference. He led his fellow quarterbacks onto the field, was right in the middle of meetings on the sideline and was the first one on the field to congratulate Simpson after Alabama’s first touchdown in the third quarter.
“At the end of the day, it’s about winning,” Milroe said. “You come to Alabama, and that standard never changes, whether you’re the starting quarterback, backup quarterback or on the scout team.”
Saban and Milroe met the Sunday after the South Florida game, and Saban assured Milroe he was the starter going forward, especially after seeing the way Milroe stepped up as a leader despite not playing. It was also obvious to Saban at that point that Milroe’s skill set gave the Crimson Tide their best chance to win.
“You’re our guy,” Saban told Milroe. “We believe in you. There’s no need to look over your shoulder.”
Milroe said that Sunday meeting with Saban was the first time he truly felt like he was Alabama’s starting quarterback.
“I’d been splitting reps throughout the offseason. Even the Texas week, I was splitting some of the reps,” Milroe said. “But after that meeting with Coach Saban, I felt like I could play freely and not be restricted. It’s been so different because now it’s my team and now it’s my offense. Now it’s me, Coach Saban and [offensive coordinator] Coach [Tommy] Rees all jelling together.”
Since the South Florida game, Saban and Milroe have met twice weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays.
“Sometimes it’s five minutes. Sometimes it’s 20 minutes,” Milroe said. “Initially, you’d probably think it was just Coach Saban talking, but it’s also an opportunity for me to talk.
“A lot of times, we just talk about life. He’s helped me with some personal things, and he’s been there for me throughout the season. The main thing is that we both talk, what we see in games, feedback from games. He sees a lot of things I don’t see, and he’s always willing to listen if I see something.”
MILROE IS THE first to admit that he’s far from a finished product. He’s still prone to taking sacks and made a few head-scratching decisions against Auburn when he tried to throw the ball (after he was across the line of scrimmage) but had room to run.
But he’s been electric in clutch situations as the Tide chase their ninth SEC championship under Saban and what they hope will be their eighth CFP appearance. Since his benching, Milroe has accounted for 26 touchdowns and turned the ball over just five times. In his past four games, he’s accounted for 15 touchdowns and turned the ball over only once.
An emotional Milroe left the Jordan-Hare Stadium field last Saturday minutes after his incredible touchdown pass to Bond, screaming, “Let’s f—ing go. Give me the Heisman!” Milroe admits he “let my emotions get the best of me.”
That may be, but some of his numbers stack up with those of the Heisman Trophy favorites. Milroe is third nationally in passing efficiency rating (179.6), behind only LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Oregon’s Bo Nix. He’s averaging 10.6 yards per pass attempt (second nationally behind Daniels) and is one of only five Power 5 quarterbacks with more than 2,500 passing yards and 400 rushing yards. Milroe and Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel are the only FBS quarterbacks with 12 rushing touchdowns.
Asked Monday if Milroe compared to Florida Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow with his blend of size, speed and running ability, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said a better comparison would be current Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson, who won the Heisman at Louisville.
“No offense to Tim Tebow, but this guy’s different,” Smart said. “Tim was a different running style, a very different running style in terms of what they did and how they did things. This guy is like when I used to ask my sons who they were playing with on the Madden game, and they would say, ‘I’m playing with the Ravens,’ and I would say, ‘Why are you playing with the Ravens?’ And they would say, ‘They’ve got Lamar Jackson and nobody can tackle him.’ Well, this guy is a bigger, physical version of that. He’s playing at a different speed than everybody else.”
One of the things the 6-foot-2, 220-pound redshirt sophomore has done best is generate big plays. In the 11 games in which he’s played, he’s been a part of 54 plays of 20 yards or longer, 20 going for touchdowns.
And as he’s settled into a rhythm, he’s made a lot more game-changing plays than he has plays that have hurt the team. Both of his touchdown passes in the third quarter against Texas A&M to rally Alabama from a 17-10 deficit came on third-and-long. He also jump-started Alabama in the Tennessee game with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Bond in the first minute of the third quarter after the Tide trailed 20-7 at the half.
Of course, the winner against Auburn was one for the ages.
“He’s seeing the game differently now, how you play the position and execute the plan, and I think that has helped him play more decisively,” Saban said. “If you’re always thinking, ‘I’ve got to make plays,’ that makes you force balls when you shouldn’t. It’s hard to have any consistency or rhythm on offense when you play that way.”
But when things do get a little helter-skelter, Saban said he hasn’t seen many quarterbacks better than Milroe, with his ability to accelerate and extend plays.
“When he has to just ad-lib, he’s fantastic. He’s off the charts,” Saban said. “But simply processing everything versus his ability to be so dynamic when things started to break down, they were working against each other sometimes. But now, they’re working together.”
Once he was given the keys to the offense, Milroe’s competitive toughness became even more apparent to the coaches. When he has made mistakes, he hasn’t allowed them to fester. Rees has tweaked some things with the offense, not simply putting Milroe in a position to run more, but tailoring the game plan around the quarterback’s strengths.
“In the passing game, we’re doing a lot of stuff, and Jalen has developed confidence in reading things and seeing things and taking what they’re giving him,” Saban said. “As much as anything, Tommy has done a really good job of figuring out the stuff Jalen is really good at and then saying, ‘Here’s how we can put him in a position to play more instinctively.'”
Milroe joked that his relationship with Rees has morphed from going on a first date with someone and trying to figure out each other’s interests to celebrating a yearlong relationship. Milroe said it is the first time he’s been coached by someone who played quarterback.
“I guess we’re about to go into a five-year relationship now,” Milroe quipped. “He’s helped me understand that I should see football through the lens of the offensive coordinator. That’s when the quarterback can really grow and really play at the level you need to play at.”
Rees is in his first season as Alabama’s coordinator after coming over from Notre Dame. Milroe’s eyebrows naturally raised when Alabama brought in Buchner, who played for Rees in South Bend, as a transfer after spring practice when nobody was named the starter.
“I wasn’t going to run from competition,” Milroe said. “My attitude, and I learned it from my dad, was to turn your weaknesses into your strengths and make all your strengths even stronger.
“If anything, bringing in another quarterback only made me stronger.”
Milroe clearly feels the commitment from the coaching staff and is playing with confidence and command. He’s not on pins and needles the way he was to start the season — which isn’t uncommon for quarterbacks trying to establish themselves — and the stage hasn’t been too big for him.
That stage is about to get bigger and a lot brighter against a Georgia defense that typically chews up and spits out opposing quarterbacks. Only twice this season has Georgia allowed a quarterback to top 200 yards in total offense, and the Bulldogs have given up a total of 11 touchdown passes.
“The best thing about Jalen is that he’s never changed,” Alabama offensive guard Tyler Booker said. “It’s just that the spotlight is on him more now because he’s playing out of his mind. I wouldn’t want to block for anybody else.”
BEING THE QUARTERBACK at Alabama isn’t for everybody, and Milroe’s support system has been extensive. He eats breakfast every Friday morning at the Waysider Restaurant (a Bear Bryant favorite) with head athletic trainer Jeff Allen, who has been with Saban all 17 of his seasons at Alabama. Milroe has also leaned heavily on defensive analyst Charlie Strong, a former head coach at Louisville, South Florida and Texas. Milroe calls Strong “Uncle Charlie.”
But nobody has been more important to Milroe than his family. His parents have never missed a scrimmage or a game, even those he didn’t play in. They will also be there next month when Milroe graduates from Alabama in business management with a concentration in entrepreneurship. He couldn’t promise his parents when he left Katy, Texas, that he would become a football star at Alabama, but he did promise them that he would get his degree.
“I still remember when Alabama and Coach Saban first offered Jalen. He came running downstairs to tell us and had tears in his eyes,” said his father, Quentin Milroe, who knows about commitment and resilience, having been part of the initial push into Iraq with the US Marines during the Iraq War in 2003. “It hasn’t been easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is, but it meant something to him to wear the ‘A,’ and that wasn’t going to change in the classroom or anywhere else just because he had to earn other people’s trust.
“Jalen has taught me and his mother [Lola] so much as parents, the way he’s handled this and the way he’s grown so much as a man, and not just as a football player, in Coach Saban’s program. You don’t learn from success. You learn from failure, and some people don’t really understand that.”
As has been his custom all season, Milroe waded through the masses of fans and teammates after Saturday’s game to find his parents and give them hugs. He gave his dad an extra big bear hug just before boarding the team bus outside the visiting locker room.
“As the phrase goes, ‘Pressure can bust pipes, or pressure can make diamonds,'” Quentin Milroe said. “You see which way Jalen has gone, but I don’t think he’s done.”
Arnold knew as much back in September when Milroe led a team meeting after the South Florida game.
“I remember his exact words: ‘It doesn’t matter what position we’re in. It doesn’t matter who’s out there playing. We have to go out there and support each other,'” Arnold recalled. “We’re all we’ve got and we’re all we need, and that’s something we live by.”
With his skeptics much less plentiful these days, Milroe is living his best life, as is an Alabama team that was pretty much left for dead not long ago.
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David Schoenfield
Relief pitchers tend to be a need for teams around MLB’s trade deadline as contenders gear up to make an October run — and 2025 was no different. The New York Yankees added a trio of relievers in David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Camilo Doval from the San Francisco Giants and Jake Bird from the Colorado Rockies to help a bullpen that had posted a 4.89 ERA over the previous two months.
The three relievers debuted last Friday — and delivered a disaster of “Cutthroat Island” proportions against the Miami Marlins. The Yankees were up 6-0 early and then 9-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning — in which the Marlins scored six runs — and New York eventually lost 13-12. The newcomers combined to allow nine runs, with Doval blowing the save when he allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth (with the help of an error from Jose Caballero, also a trade deadline acquisition).
The Yankees weren’t the only team to load up on relievers. The New York Mets traded for Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto. The Detroit Tigers acquired Kyle Finnegan, Rafael Montero and Paul Sewald. The Chicago Cubs picked up Andrew Kittredge, Taylor Rogers and swingman Michael Soroka. And, of course, there were the blockbuster deals for two of the best closers in the game with the Philadelphia Phillies acquiring Jhoan Duran (as well as signing free agent David Robertson) and the San Diego Padres trading for Mason Miller.
The question then: How much does loading up on relievers at the deadline help? Relievers, after all, can be extremely volatile. They might pitch just 20 innings the rest of the regular season, and it only takes a couple of bad outings in high-leverage moments — see Bird’s initial results with the Yankees — to nullify a bunch of good outings.
These moves are not just about getting to the postseason, but also winning once you’re there, as bullpens are used more often in the playoffs than in the regular season. Over the past four postseasons, relievers accounted for 50% of all innings. Last year, it was nearly 52%, compared with 41.2% in the regular season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, with an injury-riddled rotation last year, relied heavily on their bullpen, the relievers accounting for 58% of the team’s playoff innings en route to a World Series title. And every team would love to replicate what the Houston Astros did in winning the World Series in 2022 when their bullpen dominated the postseason with a 0.83 ERA.
We went back to 2018 to see how teams that loaded up on relievers, as the Yankees and Mets did, or added an elite closer, as the Phillies and Padres did, have performed. Have such moves paid off? Let’s find out.
2024 Padres
Added: Tanner Scott, Jason Adam, Bryan Hoeing
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.07 | After July 31: 3.19
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 59-51 (.537) | After July 31: 34-18 (.654)
The Padres acquired Scott, the player every club wanted, plus Adam, maybe the second-best reliever to change teams. They had already started to surge, winning nine of 10 games through July 31, and then 10 of 12 immediately after the deadline, going from a crowded wild-card race to comfortably leading the pack with a much-improved bullpen the rest of the season. Though the Dodgers still won the NL West, the teams met in the NLDS, and the Padres took the series lead only to get shut out in the final two games, making it clear that a great bullpen won’t matter if you can’t score runs.
2024 Mets
Added: Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek, Huascar Brazoban
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.05 | After July 31: 3.99
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 57-51 (.528) | After July 31: 32-22 (.593)
Like the Padres, the Mets played better the final two months after the deadline — although it wasn’t really because of the bullpen additions. Maton was the only one of the three to make an impact, posting a 2.51 ERA in 31 appearances. He hit the wall in the postseason, however, and though the Mets reached the NL Championship Series, the bullpen had a 5.56 ERA in the playoffs, including 6.75 in the NLCS.
Additions: Aroldis Chapman, Chris Stratton
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.83 | After July 31: 4.67
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 60-46 (.566) | After July 31: 26-23 (.531)
There isn’t really a team that qualifies as “loading up” on relievers in 2023, but let’s use the Rangers to illustrate a point. They had a bad bullpen through July (27th in the majors in ERA) and a bad bullpen after July (23rd). Their closer for most of the year had been Will Smith, but Jose Leclerc was closing by October. Chapman had six holds in the playoffs, but the reliever who closed out the World Series was Josh Sborz, who had a 5.50 ERA in the regular season. He got hot at the right time, however, and allowed just one run in 12 postseason innings. Certainly, getting more good relievers improves your odds of success, but any bullpen can get hot for a month.
2022 Padres
Addition: Josh Hader
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 3.94 | After July 31: 3.47
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 57-46 (.554) | After July 31: 31-27 (.534)
The Padres acquired Hader and Juan Soto at the deadline, but they weren’t any better the rest of the way (actually, considering the deadline that year was Aug. 2, the Padres were just 31-30 with both Hader and Soto). Hader had a 7.31 ERA in 19 appearances with the Padres, blowing two of his nine save chances and losing another game. They beat the Mets and Dodgers in the playoffs to reach the NLCS but lost to the Phillies in five games. The Padres led 3-2 in the eighth inning of Game 5 when Bryce Harper hit the series-winning two-run home run — off Robert Suarez. Hader pitched only one inning in the series.
2021 Astros
Additions: Kendall Graveman, Phil Maton, Yimi Garcia, Rafael Montero
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.08 | After July 31: 3.89
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 64-41 (.610) | After July 31: 31-26 (.544)
Graveman was the big acquisition, as he had an 0.82 ERA with the Seattle Mariners. He wasn’t as good with Houston (3.13 ERA), although he had a strong postseason with two runs in 11 innings as the Astros reached the World Series (losing to the Braves in six games). The offense was the main reason for the World Series loss, twice getting shut out — in part due to a mediocre Atlanta bullpen getting hot at the right time, similar to the Rangers two years later.
Additions: Adam Cimber, Trevor Richards, Brad Hand, Joakim Soria
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.01 | After July 31: 4.21
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 53-48 (.525) | After July 31: 38-23 (.623)
The Blue Jays played much better after the deadline, but Cimber was the only impact acquisition, posting a 1.69 ERA in 39 appearances. Hand went 0-2 with a 7.27 ERA in 11 games and was put on waivers, and Soria pitched in just 10 games, allowing seven runs in eight innings. Though the Blue Jays won 12 out of 13 to begin September, they ended up missing the playoffs by one win — going 3-9 in extra-inning games along the way.
Additions: Shane Greene, Mark Melancon, Chris Martin
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.14 | After July 31: 4.26
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 64-45 (.587) | After July 31: 33-22 (.600)
The Braves picked up three pretty good relievers here. Greene had 1.18 ERA with the Tigers and was an All-Star. Melancon had a 3.50 ERA with the Giants, and Martin had a 3.08 ERA with the Rangers (those were solid ERAs in 2019 — the year of the juiced ball). Greene saw his ERA climb to over 4.00 with the Braves, while Melancon took over as the closer and went 11-for-11 in save chances. The Braves lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games in the NLDS, with Melancon allowing four runs in the ninth inning to lose Game 1 and Greene blowing a lead in the eighth inning of Game 4 (with starter Julio Teheran getting the loss in the 10th inning).
2019 Cubs
Additions: Craig Kimbrel, Derek Holland, David Phelps, Brad Wieck
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 4.17 | After July 31: 3.65
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 57-50 (.533) | After July 31: 27-28 (.491)
Kimbrel was a late free agent signing, but we’ll include him as he made his season debut in late June. He wasn’t good, going 0-4 with a 6.53 ERA, and the Cubs collapsed late in September with a nine-game losing streak and missed the playoffs. That was mostly due to the offense, but Kimbrel lost two games down the stretch while Phelps and Wieck each lost one.
Additions: Daniel Hudson, Fernando Rodney, Hunter Strickland, Roenis Elias
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 5.96 | After July 31: 5.11
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 57-51 (.528) | After July 31: 36-18 (.667)
This barely qualifies as loading up, as Strickland and Elias were low-impact acquisitions while Rodney was signed as a free agent after the A’s released him. Indeed, in retrospect, it’s hard to believe the Nationals didn’t do more to fortify a bullpen that had the worst ERA in the majors as of July 31 and wasn’t much better the rest of the way. It didn’t matter though. Hudson pitched great (3-0, 1.44 ERA, six saves) and was the only reliable reliever along with Sean Doolittle, but manager Dave Martinez used starters Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin at various times in relief in the postseason, and the Nationals won the World Series — with Hudson closing it out.
2018 Astros
Additions: Roberto Osuna, Ryan Pressly
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 3.18 | After July 31: 2.77
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 68-41 (.624) | After July 31: 35-18 (.660)
The Astros had the third-best bullpen ERA at the trade deadline but made two deals anyway. Osuna was a controversial acquisition because he was just finishing a 75-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence policy. Ken Giles and Hector Rondon shared closer duties, but Giles (who went to Toronto in the Osuna deal) had struggled the previous postseason and Rondon was a little shaky. Osuna became the closer, and Pressly posted an 0.77 ERA the rest of the way. The Astros won 103 games but lost to the 108-win Red Sox in the ALCS.
Additions: Brad Ziegler, Jake Diekman, Matt Andriese
Bullpen ERA: Through July 31: 3.03 | After July 31: 4.63
Team W-L record: Through July 31: 60-49 (.550) | After July 31: 22-31 (.415)
The Diamondbacks led the NL West by a half-game over the Dodgers and Rockies on July 31 — thanks in part to owning the second-best bullpen ERA in the majors. Leading the way were Andrew Chafin (1.67 ERA), T.J. McFarland (1.72), Yoshihisa Hirano (2.33), Archie Bradley (3.02) and closer Brad Boxberger (3.49, 25 saves). Perhaps sensing this group was over its head, the Diamondbacks added help — but the bullpen collapsed anyway. Ziegler, Diekman and Andriese went 1-5 with a 6.55 ERA, while the others all saw their ERAs rise. Arizona finished 82-80 and missed the playoffs.
So, are there any takeaways?
Bottom line: Bullpens are forever unpredictable, which means anything can happen over the next two months for the teams that hoped to make upgrades. Bullpens are even more unpredictable in October, when the limited number of games and extra days off means any pen can get hot — see Atlanta in 2021 and Texas in 2023 — and even great relievers can have a couple of bad games that might cost a team a playoff series. And if your offense doesn’t score runs, your top relievers won’t get to close out leads anyway.
It’s all about improving your odds, adding depth and giving your manager more options (and not wearing down your best relievers down the stretch).
The Padres already had the lowest bullpen ERA in the majors this season before adding Miller and seem like a club that could pull off a 2022 Astros-like run to a World Series title (a team that had the best bullpen in the regular season). The Mets added a strong group of setup men in front of ace closer Edwin Diaz, turning a potential weakness into what looks like a strength. The Tigers’ pen ranks 19th in ERA and 28th in strikeout rate. We’ll see if their additions can make an impact. The Phillies might finally have the lights-out closer they’ve needed in Duran, and maybe he can close out playoff games, which Craig Kimbrel and Jeff Hoffman failed to do the past two postseasons. The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t make any significant additions and rank just in the middle of the pack in bullpen ERA, but their high-leverage relievers — Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Nick Mears, Aaron Ashby — have been excellent. We’ll see if that’s enough.
And the Yankees? The bullpen looks good on paper — and, hey, it could get hot at the right time in the playoffs. If the Yankees even get in.
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Andrea Adelson
BATON ROUGE, La. — Doug Nussmeier rarely gets days like this one anymore, hanging around a college football field, watching his sons Garrett and Colton soft toss the ball to each other. Garrett has been at LSU, trying to lead the Tigers on a title run. Colton has been in Texas, where he has developed into an ESPN Junior 300 prospect as one of the top quarterbacks in the country, with offers from LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and many others.
Doug has been in the NFL as an assistant coach, living apart from his family the past two years so Colton could finish out his high school career.
But on this day in June, they are all together at the LSU elite summer camp. Doug Nussmeier smiles big. He decided to leave the Philadelphia Eagles and take the offensive coordinator job with the Saints earlier this year. Now, all he needs to do to visit his older son is hop in his car and drive for an hour or so.
The family calls this a “full circle moment.”
Doug started his NFL career as a quarterback with the Saints in New Orleans. He met his wife, Christi, in New Orleans. He won a Super Bowl in the Superdome. Christi, a Louisiana native, instilled a love for her home state in her kids, a love that not only led Garrett to LSU but kept him there for five years. Now here they are, Doug, Garrett and Colton, all back in Louisiana on a swampy hot summer day.
Doug stands off to the side, watching, not coaching. Though he played quarterback, he never put pressure on his sons to play the position. But they wanted to be just like him. His No. 13 jersey and all.
“He was my idol growing up,” Garrett says. “He’s the most influential person in my career.”
Through backyard drills and days spent breaking down tape, through 12 moves to follow Doug on his coaching journey, Garrett soaked up knowledge, learned how to deal with change as a constant, spent time on different campuses, in different stadiums — every moment leading to the one he faces now in his fifth and final season with the Tigers. His mother inspired his love for LSU and his dad inspired his obsession with the quarterback position.
They both led him here, to the biggest year of his life.
CHRISTI NUSSMEIER WOULD have been perfectly happy if her sons hadn’t become quarterbacks. But looking back, it does seem like they were always on the path to running an offense. When Christi says her sons were born with a football in their hands, she means it almost literally. After Garrett was born in 2002, she chose a Sports Illustrated-themed birth announcement. In the photo, Garrett snuggles a football.
Garrett’s earliest football memories start at age 6, when he asked his dad to throw with him in their backyard in Seattle. The warmup Doug showed him is the one Garrett still uses before every practice and game, focusing on flexibility first before moving into segments that isolate different parts of the throwing motion.
At every college stop they made, Garrett observed the quarterbacks: Drew Stanton at Michigan State, Jake Locker at Washington, A.J. McCarron at Alabama. Garrett saw the way each player led his team not only in games but at practices. He watched the way they interacted with their teammates. He sometimes sat in the room with them to break down tape.
“I was subconsciously just learning things without actually knowing what I was learning,” Garrett says. “As I got older, I started to realize, ‘Hey, OK, that’s what they were doing.'”
From there, Garrett steadily improved and kept his eyes focused on getting a college scholarship, then eventually playing in the NFL. Garrett was smaller for a quarterback at 6-foot-1, and his parents had no idea where he might end up. But they encouraged him to keep pushing forward, and Doug provided feedback whenever Garrett asked.
“I was hoping that as he started to grow into his middle school years, maybe he’ll be good enough to be a starter on his high school team. And then if he’s that, well, then maybe that opens the door for him to have the opportunity to play at a small school or someplace,” Doug says.
Doug had taken an assistant coaching job with the Cowboys in 2018, so the Nussmeiers moved to the Dallas area, where Garrett would play high school football. Christi remembers one moment early in Garrett’s high school career that changed everything.
“Garrett made some moves, and I just remember my face going, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I looked at Doug. We both looked at each other,” Christi says. “We knew Garrett was talented, and we knew he was special, but I asked Doug, ‘That’s not normal, is it?’ And Doug said, ‘No.'”
Adds Doug: “He wasn’t the biggest guy, but all of a sudden, some schools started coming to see him.”
Ole Miss was the first to invite him to a football camp, then LSU invited him to campus, too. LSU held a special place in his heart. Garrett was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Christi grew up.
Christi was determined to give her three children — including daughter, Ashlynn, also an LSU student — a place they could call home, considering all the moving they did. They may have changed addresses every few years, but they would always return to Lake Charles for the holidays and summers. Christi cooked specialties from home and played zydeco music. When people asked the kids where they were from, they would answer, “Louisiana.”
“Lake Charles was the only place that was constant my life,” Garrett says. “When you only live somewhere at the longest three years, you’re just spinning around, and so Louisiana was just always my home. When I came on my first visit here, I just knew this is where I want to be.”
Garrett loved then-coach Ed Orgeron, but he really wanted to play for then-offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger. He committed in 2020 as a junior. Ensminger announced his retirement later that year, but Garrett signed in 2021 anyway, as an ESPN 300 prospect and one of the top quarterbacks in the nation.
Garrett played in four games and ultimately redshirted, but midway through that freshman season, LSU announced Orgeron would not return for 2022. For months, Garrett felt uncertainty about his future and the future of the program.
Enter Brian Kelly.
ON JAN. 7, 2013, Garrett Nussmeier and Brian Kelly shared a football field for the first time. Doug was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama when the Crimson Tide played Kelly and Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game in South Florida.
Garrett, who was 10 at the time, remembers falling asleep at halftime with Alabama up 28-0. But he also remembers heading down to the field after the 42-14 victory, throwing confetti and holding the championship trophy. During a quarterback meeting their first year together, Garrett decided to have some fun. He turned to Kelly and asked, “Remember that national championship?” They had a good laugh.
But the transition to playing under Kelly wasn’t so easy.
Nussmeier thought that after his first year at LSU, he was going to be the guy at quarterback. But Kelly went into the transfer portal and brought in Jayden Daniels, who ultimately won the starting job in 2022.
“Things were a little rocky at first,” Garrett Nussmeier admits. “But as time has gone on, my relationship with Coach Kelly has just grown.”
Nussmeier had opportunities to leave through the transfer portal, especially after serving as the backup to Daniels in 2022 and 2023. But he knew what it was like to leave a place, having done it so much growing up. He knew how hard it was to start over, make new friends, go through proving himself all over again.
He watched his dad preach patience throughout his own coaching career. Maybe more than anything, Garrett felt an unwavering loyalty to the state of Louisiana and desperately wanted to bring a championship to the place he calls home.
“I just didn’t feel like my time here was done,” Nussmeier says.
“He came in built for an old-school mentality of ‘I’m going to stick it out. I’m going to work my tail off and get that opportunity,'” Kelly says. “He saw some things that we were doing in developing Jayden and getting him to be a better version of himself. He grew up loving LSU. If you add all of those things up, it wasn’t about just throwing some money at him. It had to be more than that. He is a guy that loves transformational relationships instead of transactional.”
Garrett finally got his opportunity to start last season, opening with a 300-yard passing day in a last-second loss to USC. LSU rolled to a 6-1 start, but the next three games proved to be the most humbling stretch of his career. The Tigers dropped all three — to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida — as Nussmeier struggled to play consistently and avoid mistakes. In those three losses, he threw for five combined touchdowns and five interceptions, lost two fumbles and took 11 sacks, including a whopping seven against the Gators.
“There was a part of me that was doing too much and trying to be perfect instead of just playing football,” Nussmeier says. “There was a lot of overthinking, a lot of trying to make things happen when I didn’t need to. That was one of the biggest learning moments for me in my career.”
Indeed, both Kelly and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan say Nussmeier had to go through those moments to learn and grow. Kelly called the losses a “low point” in decision-making and managing the game.
“A lot of playing quarterback is developing some calluses, and he was able to develop some calluses, and he knows what the fire feels like,” Sloan says.
At 6-4, with a once promising season on the verge of disaster, LSU hosted Vanderbilt at home in late November. “That was a big moment for me,” Nussmeier says.
Before the game, he took a deep breath and told himself to forget about being perfect. LSU won its final three games, including a 44-31 victory over Baylor in the Kinder’s Texas Bowl. Nussmeier threw for 313 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, a game Kelly described as his best of the season.
“He didn’t take the big play as being the only play,” Kelly says. “He started to figure out that zero was OK. Once he felt that zero is OK, and I don’t have to make a play each and every down, the offense played very well.”
Doug would watch nearly every game alone in a hotel room as he prepared his own game plans for the Eagles. Sometimes he would watch on TV, sometimes on an iPad. He made sure never to overstep or question the coaching Nussmeier was getting from Kelly and Sloan.
“They have a plan, and they are working diligently to improve the things that need to be improved and strengthen the things that need to be strengthened,” Doug says.
LSU ended the season 9-4. Nussmeier had already announced he would be back for a fifth and final season. He asked his dad to handle his NIL negotiations.
WHEN BAUER SHARP came to LSU on his official visit, he went to dinner with Nussmeier and linebacker Whit Weeks. Nussmeier, Sharp says, was instrumental in helping him decide to transfer from Oklahoma to LSU.
Indeed, Nussmeier took an active role in helping LSU revamp its roster through the portal, understanding that both he and the program had championship aspirations for 2025. In addition to Sharp, LSU signed two top five wide receivers (Barion Brown and Nic Anderson) and revamped a defense that has struggled at times.
The presence of a veteran quarterback, going into his second year as a starter, proved to be a huge selling point, too.
“With him being in the offense for four years, that played a huge part in it, and just to see what type of leadership he had, and to connect with him, that was so inviting,” Sharp says. “It was so encouraging. I loved what I saw.”
Nussmeier is the rare quarterback who has stayed put. Of the Top 20 quarterbacks who signed in 2021, 14 ended up transferring. Seven are playing their fifth seasons in 2025. Of those seven, only Nussmeier and Behren Morton at Texas Tech are still playing for the teams with which they originally signed. To Garrett, the decision to play one more year was not complicated.
“When you look at the statistics of quarterbacks getting drafted high, a lot of them were fifth years,” Garrett says. “That experience matters for my position. So I think there’s a lot of value in staying.”
Kelly points to stats, too, and the way his quarterbacks play better in their final season as his starter. Daniels is the perfect example. In Year 1 under Kelly, Daniels threw for 2,913 yards and 17 touchdowns. In Year 2, Daniels threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns, en route to winning the Heisman Trophy.
“I really believe experience at that position is the most important thing,” Kelly says. “Wherever I’ve been, your last year is your best year, so the expectations are that the same will occur for Garrett.”
Indeed, early Heisman odds have Nussmeier second, right behind Texas quarterback Arch Manning. Nussmeier also is ranked as one of the top quarterback prospects for the NFL draft next season. (ESPN’s Matt Miller has him going No. 11 .)
“I definitely think he’s capable of winning a Heisman, but that trophy is based off a season,” Sloan says. “He has the talent, and we have the people around him. I just know this. He’s who we would want to be a quarterback at LSU. If we got to draft, we’d pick Garrett Nussmeier.”
Nussmeier worked this offseason to put himself in position to win a title, dropping a few pounds, adding muscle mass and working with private speed coaches in Dallas. Sloan says Nussmeier is in the best shape of his life, and that will allow him to help more in the run game. Managing the pocket, speeding up the process at the line of scrimmage and his footwork also have been a huge point of emphasis this offseason.
“When his feet are on time, and staying what I call tight and he’s not having big movements, he’s extremely accurate, and especially more and more accurate down the field,” Sloan says.
He also took more ownership of the team.
“He’s a whole different person, the way he carries himself, the way he speaks to others,” running back Caden Durham said. “We see his energy in the morning, 7 o’clock for workouts. Everybody is like, ‘We’re going to go as hard as you and even harder,’ just because he’s the leader. He’s the head honcho. This offense runs through him. So let’s go.”
Nothing about what is ahead will come as a shock. Walking into SEC stadiums with his dad prepared him for big crowds, big moments. Memories often trickle back. The first time taking the field at Baton Rouge in 2020, closing his eyes, remembering what it felt like to be inside a roaring, sold-out Death Valley. When he walked onto the field at Auburn in 2022, he turned to Sloan and Daniels, pointed to the sideline near the away team tunnel and said, “That’s where I was crying when the Kick Six happened,” remembering back to the 2013 Iron Bowl when his dad was an Alabama assistant.
The Nussmeiers call all of these moments “God winks,” each one intertwined, interconnected, preparing Garrett for the moment he has waited on since he first threw a football in the backyard with his dad.
Now with Doug just a drive away in Louisiana, the place Garrett loves more than anything, they are closer than they have been since they lived under one roof in Dallas. Christi will be able to make her way to LSU and Saints home games. Ashlynn will be there. Colton may make a trip or two depending on his schedule.
There is, of course, one way for this full circle moment to be complete: hoisting a championship trophy.
“I’ve always wanted this pressure. I’ve always wanted this expectation. I’ve always wanted people to talk about me the way that they are and have this expectation,” Nussmeier said. “It’s definitely a dream come true.
“But it’s not finished yet.”
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