Alabama’s Ryan Williams might be an ‘old soul‘ handling a lot on his plate than he should at 17 years of age, but he is only a human being and, hence, he has his limits to push for. This became more of a steadfast fact during the \ huge Tennessee upset of the Bamas this Saturday. The young freshman had been on the central point of Jalen Milroe’s target who kept him on his toes by serving constant passes. While you can see it as a cemented faith in the super-talented youngest player in the team, it clearly came off as a burden to the kid. Continuing the notion, popular CFB analyst Tom Luginbill added to the allegations against Milroe, who already shouldered the blame for the massive Bama offensive woes.

During Alabama’s poor showdown against the Vols, Jalen Milroe was not at his best. He completed 55.6% of his throws, marking his lowest of the season. Well, you might have seen it coming from how rigorously and continuously he kept on targetting Williams. However, veteran analyst Luginbill believes it’s not about what Milroe was doing but how he was doing it.  The accuracy gap in Milroe’s difficult passes made for a slip for the younger one despite his walking out throwing for 239 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. ‘Ryan Williams can make a spectacular play. But he (Milroe) didn’t make it easy on Ryan Williams,” said Luginbill.

First of all, the game was quite different for the young freshman. Williams, until the Week 8, did not have more than seven targets in any of the games. The highest? Against Georgia and Vandy when he had seven targets. In the Vols game, Milroe looked for Ryan Williams 18 whooping times, and the pass was completed only 8 times. What happened on the incompletions? Well, short passes, long passes, thrown in double coverage- everything that a QB should not do. Even when Ryan Williams was wide open on some third-and-longs, Milroe threw it long.

That’s what Luginbill said. ‘‘And I am not saying it has to be easy all the time, we have seen the young man spectacular catches, but you also got to give him a chance, just make the routine catch, if he’s got to step up separation, in that regard, I thought Greg  McElroy on air was right when he stated that maybe this isn’t the same caliber of a collective group of skilled weapons at Alabama that we have seen before.”

Clearly, the offense is struggling, the O-line hasn’t been that effective in preventing pressures, and Milroe has been off. Given the rise in Ryan Williams’ profile this year, the defenses are going to spend extra energy in taking him out of the game. As the leader of the offense, Milroe’s job is to not let that happen.

Jalen Milroe loves the Ryan Williams factor of the current Alabama team

But on the flip side, Jalen Milroe, 21, can’t help adoring the quality addition of Ryan Williams to a packed-up Bama roster. Williams, the gifted one who used to practice football with his grandfather, Robert’s shotgun, from a very tender age, effortlessly developed an unmatched maturity and sense of the crucial game nitty gritty. An enviable high school career followed. And finally, when, in a rare course of events, the 17-year-old decided to make an early jump to the prestigious Alabama university, sacrificing his senior years in the school, no one was more thrilled than Jalen Milroe.

Milroe later explained how he got to know he was too serious about the sport not to be included in the game plan. During his rookie days, Williams met his head trainer in the training room and straightaway asked him to put him on the plan that DeVonta Smith was on. The confidence and the urge to climb higher were huge for someone coming fresh off school. The outshot? Sitting atop the attention of the Bama fans for the first half of the 2024 season

We can expect a lot of Milroe-Williams connection brewing, given a lot of season is yet to be played, regardless of all the controversies.

What’s your take on Jalen Milroe being at the gunpoint for over-targeting Ryan Williams in the last game? Let us know in the comments.