I don't buy it. That performance could have been a really bad day -- they happen, SEE Florida State/Alabama in 1974 -- instead of some kind of revolt.
It's unfathomable to me that something would not have leaked out of the locker room to confirm any conspiracy among the players rather than a truly awful performance by a team coming off a disheartening loss that was also searching for a quarterback and an identity.
It kinda has started to trickle out, but usually it’s a 3-4 year dump of information. Alot of people don’t want to dump on current players and wait a few years to do so.
The problem here is that 80% of the fanbase wants to accept only one of two points. 1) that the team threw the USF game or 2) Simpson and Buchner were just not good as Milroe in 23. But the often overlooked point was that Milroe didn’t play at all that day in South Florida. No one seems to want to know why and just wants to assume Saban was testing his options. The truth is that Milroe was suspended because of his reaction to a heated film study with the offensive staff on his reads during the Texas game. It kinda puts into question why our offense was atrocious the one game that he was suspended.
Idk how involved Milroe was in on the faction of the locker room that supported him but I do know that Saban buried a particular receiver on the depth chart because he was loafing for Buchner during a scrimmage that Buchner and Simpson were doing very well and Milroe couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn.
So to think there wasn’t locker room drama around the quarterbacks especially after Saban himself hinted at it seems like a person is just actively avoiding information just because they don’t believe it. Now to what extent is a different question. What I do know is that I have heard credible people claim it was very bad and credible people say it really was typical drama and the real problem is that all 3 quarterbacks were about equal in terms of risks and rewards so they just went with the guy that had the locker room. But one thing they all agree on was there was locker room drama about who was going to be the quarterback.