Let’s be honest. Alabama had 3 goals against Chattanooga on Saturday.

Start fast, get the starters out, and stay healthy.

Mission accomplished? You bet.

The Tide rolled to a 66-10 blowout win against its FCS foe and stayed healthy ahead of an increasingly intriguing Iron Bowl.

Here are 3 takeaways from Alabama clinching a 10-win season for the 16th consecutive year:

1. Jalen Milroe was nearly perfect in his 1 half of work

You knew that Milroe was ready to roll when he hit Jermaine Burton on a 56-yard ball on the first play from scrimmage. Outside of an instance or 2 in which he held onto the football too long, Milroe looked like the player that he’s been for the past month and a half.

His day ended at halftime, though not without him stuffing the stat sheet once again. Milroe completed 13 of 16 passes — he was 10 for 10 in the 1st quarter — for 197 yards and 3 touchdowns. With Alabama leading 38-7 at the break Nick Saban didn’t mess around with bringing in Milroe out for the 2nd half. Ty Simpson got a chance to get his most meaningful reps since that USF debacle.

(Simpson should’ve had a 79-yard touchdown run, but he inexplicably dropped the ball at the half-yard line. Alabama still scored on the next play, but the redshirt freshman surely heard about that one.)

Unlike that day in Tampa, Milroe not only played, but he made sure the hay was in the barn for an Alabama victory well before Simpson took the field.

Also of note? True freshman Dylan Lonergan, not Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner, got his first college snaps as the 3rd-string quarterback.

2. Jermaine Burton is back

Burton was a surprisingly late scratch last week against Kentucky because of illness. Milroe’s favorite target made his presence felt early in his return to the field. In addition to racking up that aforementioned 56-yard play, he capped off the first drive with a touchdown grab in the back of the end zone.

Like Milroe, Burton’s day came to an early end. He racked up 105 yards on 3 catches and a score, all of which came in the first 5 minutes.

It wasn’t really a concern for Saban whether Burton would be out for significant time, but it was an encouraging development to see him and Milroe pick up where they left off before spending the second half on the sideline.

3. It’s officially Iron Bowl week

Think about what this game was looking like it would be in late September. Who would’ve thought that Alabama would be trying to close out a perfect SEC record with Playoff hopes still alive? Who would’ve also thought that Auburn would be trying to win its 4th consecutive game to close out an 8-win regular season?

(As of this writing, I don’t know the result of New Mexico State-Auburn. But I’m assuming that’ll be the case.)

An improving Hugh Freeze-led Auburn team with nothing to lose will face a 1-loss Alabama team with everything to lose at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That’s as much as any neutral observer could’ve hoped for in Year 1 of the Freeze era.

The stars are aligned for another epic chapter in one of the best rivalries in sports.