Tide in Tampa: Alabama players return to House of Athlete for full week of offseason work

For the second year in a row, Jalen Milroe traveled to Tampa with some of his teammates.

The Alabama quarterback reached out to Vincent Sanders, the director of recruiting at House of Athlete , after the 2023 campaign ended. Milroe wanted to set up another trip for some offseason training, similar to what he did last year with a number of his offensive teammates.

Two weeks before visiting central Florida, Milroe contacted House of Athlete vice president of pro sports Yo Murphy and asked for a copy of the workout schedule. He wanted to make sure there could be time carved into each day for them to get extra work in as Alabama’s players continue to learn a new offensive playbook under head coach Kalen DeBoer .

The Crimson Tide contingent spent Monday through Friday of last week going through meetings with speakers, on-field work and sessions in the weight room, which typically ended somewhere between 2:30 and 3 p.m. ET. After an already full day, they would then head back out to the field to work on their own drills to get ready for the summer and preseason camp.

“He led them,” Murphy told BamaOnLine. “We left the field, gave him the footballs and he led them for another hour, hour and 10 minutes or 15 minutes on the field every day.”

And they didn’t waste their extra time on the field.

“They’re huddling up, running the plays, coming out like it’s a game, and they’re moving down the field,” Sanders told BamaOnLine. “Usually, if somebody’s doing drills and stuff, you’re gonna stay right there on the 20-yard line and just run your routes. No, they were moving down the field and coming back the other way. This was like a real-deal game scenario.”

Joining Milroe in Tampa was quarterback Ty Simpson , wide receivers Emmanuel Henderson and Jaren Hamilton , running backs Justice Haynes and Richard Young and tight end CJ Dippre . It marked the second year in a row for Milroe and Henderson, while Kendrick Law and Danny Lewis plan to return for their second visit later due to scheduling conflicts.

But the seven players who made the trek to the Sunshine State were among roughly 40 players from several schools, including Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and Ole Miss, there.

“The Bama kids pretty much established themselves, and it was like everybody was wanting to go out there and run routes with them,” Sanders said. “It’s caught on. Everybody wants to come now, and it started with the Bama kids.

“They didn’t have to come here. They could have gone home and enjoyed their little break, but they chose two years in a row to come here and work, and we worked the shit out of them. And they did it, no bitching, no complaining. I don’t wanna hear anything if they win the natty because they put in the work.”

Special guests

We covered last year’s event at BOL , but Round 2 featured a couple of new wrinkles.

To begin three of the five days, players spent an hour with Super Bowl-winning head coach Jon Gruden , who Murphy reached out to about working with Milroe and the other offensive players in attendance on the whiteboard. During his time at ESPN, Gruden’s QB Camp was a popular spot on the network as he quizzed draft prospects on their knowledge of the game.

How did this wave of college athletes, particularly from Alabama, respond to the classes?

“They loved it,” Murphy said. “Coach Gruden has a way of keeping it real with you. Like everything he says he means, and it’s his honest opinion. But just not beating you to death. Like he has a way of just making sure you understand it, telling you how it is and then giving you other options as far as how to handle it. Just a really good coach.”

In addition to Gruden, the Crimson Tide players were informed on Monday that former Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith would be making his way back to Tampa after a brief break for Mother’s Day to continue his offseason training and he wanted to get some work with them.

They willingly obliged to change their schedule around and add Smith as another route runner but also an example for the group, especially Henderson and Hamilton at wide receiver.

“Smitty’s got a motor. Like that’s his thing,” Murphy said. “He just feels he can outlast everybody. So it was good. It was good for them to stand by him and go through the paces.”

“It’s huge. They soaked it up, and you could see them watching him and they were pushing themselves. But just watching how Smitty worked and how he moved and them seeing kind of his perceived focus. The first day that those guys worked together was probably their hardest day and one of the hardest days that Smitty and I had had so far this offseason.

“So it was really good for them to get together and see that.”

Simpson makes the trip

Last year, Milroe was the only quarterback that made the trip to Tampa. At the time, he was in a battle for the starting quarterback job with Simpson and Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner and showed some initiative by gathering his receiving corps following spring practice.

This offseason, he was joined by Simpson, who is currently behind Milroe in the pecking order after spring ball. But rather than enter the NCAA transfer portal like some believed he would, the rising redshirt sophomore chose to stick around and continue to improve his game at Alabama, where he could have a prime opportunity to start next year if Milroe turns pro.

Getting their first look at Simpson, the people at House of Athlete liked what they saw.

“Really impressed with him,” Murphy said. “With just that move, staying there, being a part of something great even if you aren’t the main part is very impressive. You would think the way that Ty carried himself, he was a starter. Like it wasn’t jumping around and nobody was rah-rah and stuff. It was just he was focused, locked in.

“When they were throwing, he was telling guys exactly what he wanted them to do and why and just being that coach on the field. He was really impressive.”

Although Milroe organized the time in Tampa for a second straight year, he didn’t hog the reps with his receivers, running backs and tight end. Simpson was able to get some quality work in, as well, and when he took over the Tide offense, there was no noticeable dropoff.

“They were taking turns, and when he was running the offense, there was no difference,” Sanders said. “Like nothing changed. The only thing that changed was the voice. To know your backup quarterback can come in and run the show and he’s doing everything he’s supposed to do to better himself and he’s doing it, in the weight room. I didn’t realize he was that strong.

“He truly impressed me.”

Skill players stand out

Quarterbacks get a lot of the spotlight, and offseason workouts are no different. But Alabama’s skill players also received rave reviews for their effort in the week with the signal-callers.

This marked the second year Henderson was present at House of Athlete, and he is hoping to carve out a larger role in Year 3 in Tuscaloosa after last season’s start was hampered by injury. He and Hamilton, who is going into his second season, will look to claim rotational spots in the offense after productive springs. They bring “speed and willingness” to the table.

“Those guys, E-Man and Turbo, they just work,” Murphy said. “Took direction well, like looked you dead in the eye and focused on what you’re saying and how to do it correctly. It’s humbling to work with guys like that that have such athletic ability and God-given talent but understand that it was God-given. We’ve got to work for everything we get.

“It’s really good to see, and that’s what they all did.”

The running back position was left out of last year’s group but was well-represented this time around. Haynes was present for the entire week, while Young arrived midway through it to give the quarterbacks a couple of pass-catchers out of the backfield. Both players, along with Jam Miller , are set to see their roles increase as they enter their sophomore years.

“Those cats are some bulls, boy,” Murphy said. “Strong, powerful. We’ve had guys here for a few years now from Bama, and they all were on time, they worked hard, they focus on the mission. And then those guys, they feel the part. You get the big O-line, you get those guys in the backfield and it’s gonna be hard to handle.”

In addition to the quartet of receivers and running backs, Sanders spoke highly of Dippre on multiple occasions, each unsolicited. The veteran tight end is going into his second season at Alabama after making 11 starts and catching 11 passes during the 2023 campaign.

“All the receivers running routes, they were crisp,” Sanders said. “And CJ, man, he can catch. I knew he could play from when he came from Maryland, but that’s a tight end. I was like, ‘Wow.’”

Milroe’s leadership

Milroe made the call to Sanders shortly after Alabama’s season ended. He made sure there was enough time left in his teammates’ schedules to get separate work in on the field – one time to the point that Sanders reminded him that they had more workouts to do the next day. But that is an example of Milroe’s mindset as he approaches Year 2 as the Tide starter.

“I can’t say enough about J-Mill and his leadership,” Sanders said. “He’s searching for perfection. He wants it right and he’s holding himself to a high standard. He knows he’s gotta grind.”

Leadership was a word routinely used by Sanders and Murphy when discussing Milroe. It was a trait they saw last year when he assembled his receivers and linemen, and it carried over to this offseason, even increasing to not just leading Alabama’s players but everyone else.

“He’s in the weight room and there’s 40 of us in there and he’s the most vocal,” Sanders said. “‘Let’s go. Come on.’ I mean, with everybody. His teammates, other players from other teams.

“A leader is gonna lead everybody, not just his players, and when we were in that environment where everybody is in there working out, we’re all one unit working out and he was the most vocal, I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s got it.’”

Milroe finished sixth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy last year as he led Alabama to an SEC championship and a College Football Playoff berth. But his teammates voted him one of three permanent captains, the team’s most valuable player and the most inspiring.

His efforts this offseason further prove that as he gets set to lead for a second straight year.

“We had an optional work day on Friday and that’s usually a day where you see quarterbacks kind of go and recover, and he’s the first one out there on the field,” Murphy said. “There’s other guys, his receivers and some guys from Bama came. I just really wasn’t expecting him to be out there. And that’s who he is.

“I think that’s his greatest quality, and I think that’s the biggest thing in demand nowadays because these guys want to be led. They want to be led by somebody off the field, and that’s who Jalen is. He’s always helping guys up.”

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