It began with an outside zone run play against Boise State. It ended 984 plays later with a short pass to a 5-yard button hook route that fell incomplete on fourth down against a victorious Michigan team. That's how the Washington offense bookended its impressive 14-1 season last year, and in an effort to gain an understanding of the system that new Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will install, I watched those two plays and every single one in between over the last few weeks.

And once I'd rubbed my bleary eyes from the task, I came to this inescapable conclusion: Jalen Milroe is in for a jolt.

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The Crimson Tide quarterback will be learning an offensive system that is nothing like the one he operated in an SEC Championship season last year. Upon being hired, DeBoer said his offense can be adjusted to suit the skills of the players on hand. I don't doubt that he and new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will do just that, but they aren't going to dismantle the root fundamentals of what made their offense wildly successful at Washington.

And make no mistake: fundamental change is afoot.

That's not to say Milroe is going to struggle. Indeed, there were times last season when it seemed the Tommy Rees offense wasn't well-suited to Milroe's skills, so the change could potentially benefit the fourth-year junior and spur his development.

But it will take some re-wiring.

The most basic change in store for Milroe? This offense will demand he get the ball out of his hand much more quickly than he did last season. That should be just fine with Alabama fans who last year witnessed poor pass protection conspire with Milroe's tendency to hold the ball too long to kill far too many possessions. He was sacked more times through three starts last season than Washington QB Michael Penix was sacked all year, yet Penix threw nearly twice as many passes (555 to Milroe's 284).

If the 2023 Washington offense is any indication, Milroe will throw more screen passes in his first two games this fall than Rees called the entire season. Wherever opposing defenses are giving away cheap yardage on underneath throws — curls, shallow crosses and the like — he'll be asked to complete those passes before the pass rush can get anywhere near him. Running backs will be more involved in the passing game, too. Penix, the Huskies' Heisman Trophy finalist who threw for an incredible 4,903 yards to lead the nation by a wide margin, didn't exactly get there with the long ball. He took a few deep shots every week, and connected on a lot of them, but according to Pro Football Focus, he threw to targets within nine yards of the line of scrimmage, or behind it, on just over half his pass attempts.

That would require something of a mindset reversal for a quarterback like Milroe, who typically looked for big-chunk gains first under Rees' offense. His prolific ability to throw the deep ball was a huge key to Alabama's offense, but from a progression standpoint, he tended to let vertical routes develop first, often extending plays by scrambling to do so, and tucked to run rather than checking down to shorter throws..

As such, a seismic change in approach is likely coming for the quarterback, but there's no reason to think he can't do it. One of Milroe's traits that retired coach Nick Saban repeatedly praised last season was his desire to learn and his capacity for growth.

"I try to be a sponge for all information," Milroe said after winning the Iron Bowl. "That’s one thing I saw from Bryce (Young)."

Let the soak-in begin.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football QB Milroe in for major adjustment to DeBoer offense