Three Things We Learned From Saturday's College Football Spring Games

The 2026 season is beginning to take shape.

Keelon Russell’s performance Saturday intrigued Alabama fans. | Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

If you listen closely, you can almost hear the crunch of autumn leaves.

That’s because spring football is in full swing, with dozens of spring games being played Saturday at the FBS and FCS level. While not all were proper games, and a number that were deviated from the Walter Camp-approved rules of football as we know them, each taught those who know what to look for some nugget about the year to come—proving the value of the spring game in a world increasingly hostile to their existence.

From this cornucopia of information and half-information, here are three things we learned from Saturday’s crop of scrimmages.

Keelon Russell? Keelon Russell!

Alabama fans only got a brief glimpse of the quarterback last season, and it was restricted to garbage time—Russell completed 11 of 15 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns against Louisiana-Monroe and Eastern Illinois. On Saturday, Crimson Tide fans saw what the Duncanville, Texas native could do against an evenly matched defense (i.e., his own). An unofficial tabulation by AL.com recorded Russell as completing 20 of 32 passes for 229 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception.

The question is whether Russell, a former Gatorade National Football Player of the Year, can beat out Austin Mack—who Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer recruited to Washington way back in 2023. Mack struggled Saturday, completing around half his passes and recording a touchdown and a pick; DeBoer later cagily told reporters postgame via On3’s Charlie Potter that Mack was “dinged up.” Not since now-Eagles and Falcons quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa battled it out in 2018 have the Crimson Tide seen a quarterback controversy this intriguing.

Jim Knowles eyes a return to form

The eternal question when one side of the ball dominates a spring game is whether that side of the ball is good or the other is bad. With Tennessee, the reductive answer may be a bit of both. The bad news first: only one quarterback threw a touchdown in the abbreviated game. Colorado transfer Ryan Staub found wide receiver Carson Whitehead for a 72-yard score, which made up more than half of Staub’s passing yardage total. Neither of the other two candidates to replace departed 2025 SEC yardage leader Joey Aguilar—Faizon Brandon nor George MacIntyre—produced a true highlight play.

However, the Volunteers’ defense seemed to brim with confidence after its stingy performance, with linebacker Edwin Spillman saying via Alex Sarkis of the Daily Beacon that the unit had “a whole different mindset and a whole different attention to detail” after finishing 92nd in the country in scoring defense. Tennessee hired Knowles as defensive coordinator on Dec. 11, after his ballyhooed `25 move from Ohio State to Penn State went sideways following the Nittany Lions’ dismissal of coach James Franklin. Both Knowles and the defense will have something to prove in 2026, and with a navigable schedule by SEC standards, the opportunity for a defensive rebound is there if the Volunteers want it.

At Syracuse, quarterback worries abound

Similarities (not just chromatic) are plenty between Tennessee and the Orange. Like the Volunteers, Syracuse is breaking in a new defensive coordinator in ex-Toledo lieutenant Vince Kehres (a two-time national champion head coach at Mount Union). And like Tennessee, the Orange faithful seem concerned by their quarterback situation. No, check that—if the Volunteers’ quarterback play Saturday was a small electrical fire, Syracuse’s was a genuine conflagration.

The unspoken subtext to this article is that all spring football should be viewed with a grain of salt, but Orange quarterbacks Malachi Nelson and Amari Odom both struggled quite a bit. Nelson passed (per Javon Edmonds of Syracuse.com) for three yards, while Odom mixed highlights (two completions over 30 yards) and lowlights (two interceptions). Nelson and Odom—transfers from UTEP and Kennesaw State, respectively—are nominally vying for Syracuse’s backup job, but the winner of the competition will likely see appreciable action as quarterback Steve Angeli recovers from his Sept. 20 Achilles injury. After beating Clemson in the game where Angeli was injured, the Orange lost eight straight to finish 3-9.

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