Kalen DeBoer Needs To See 'Poise' From New Starting Quarterback

Alabama football enters the 2026 season looking for a new starting quarterback for the third time in four years. The Crimson Tide's quarterback battle features senior quarterback Austin Mack and sophomore Keelon Russell, each offering various skill sets that make them viable options for the coming season.

Both quarterbacks have thrown touchdown passes in mop-up duty, and each has impressed in scrimmages, but neither has carried the burden of starting quarterback duties at the college level. So what will separate the two this fall to determine the new starting signal-caller?

"Poise," DeBoer said. "A guy that can move the ball up and down the field. I said it earlier, but our quarterbacks do have the belief and trust amongst our entire team. There are different ways where I've seen that, whether it was in the spring or through the summer. There are different conversations, different activities that we do where I really can get a good feel of it being genuine, that our team trusts that whoever steps on the football field and takes those snaps is going to be a guy -- and I think that's because they believe in both guys.

"You know, the poise, though, that's hard to create, and that's what we got to do with our entire football team, not just the quarterback position. Putting guys in spots where there is adversity, where there are moments that are tough and challenging, how they process. But, again, that comes down to the poise you got to have. We need the guy that can move the ball up and down the field the most efficiently and effectively and makes the guys around him better. From a character standpoint, a work ethic standpoint, and a production standpoint, as I mentioned earlier. These guys have the team, and now it's just a matter of having to decide which one takes the first snap, as you mentioned."

Mack enters his fourth year in DeBoer's system, while Russell enters his second, giving the elder a slight advantage entering the final stage of the offseason. The Crimson Tide kicks off against East Carolina in 45 days, and fall camp begins next week, giving both Mack and Russell over a month to show poise under pressure in the midst of a contested quarterback battle.

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