Ryan Grubb's Non-Negotiable Traits for Starting Quarterbacks

“Ryan Grubb has been someone that I have trusted for a long time and adding him to our staff only improves the quality of coaches we have here at Alabama. He is one of the best offensive minds in the country, and I can’t wait to see what he brings to our organization moving forward.”

This was the message that Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after Grubb was hired to be the Crimson Tide's next offensive coordinator in February. Grubb was part of DeBoer's staff at Washington in 2022 and 2023, where he helped coach the Huskies to the CFP championship game in the 2023 season. The two have a deep history as he also worked under or with DeBoer at Sioux Falls, Eastern Michigan and Fresno State.

DeBoer is entering Year 2 of taking over for legendary former Alabama head coach Nick Saban following his retirement, and Grubb has the task of leading his offense. And in football, the quarterback also takes on that responsibility as well.

Grubb said after A-Day in April that redshirt junior Ty Simpson would be the starting quarterback if the season kicked off the next day and he reaffirmed that stance to Tide 100.9 on Thursday. But regardless of who the Week 1 starter is for Alabama, Grubb listed a few traits that the lead man under center must have in order to succeed.

"I think the first thing is just an elite decision maker," Grubb told Tide 100.9. And you know, you obviously got to have all the physical attributes so that the ball can spread to the right place on the field, but decision-making, command and leadership are non-negotiables. Those are things that every great quarterback is going to have.

"There's things that we talk about quite a bit that, you know, the best guys, the quarterbacks that you want to have, they make everybody in the facility better. When they walk in, everybody's doing better. So from the defensive guys, to the coaching staff, to the players on offense, just, [it's not really about] charisma but just work ethic, how they approach their days and everybody looks at them with the same approach."

Grubb explained that the other trait a starting quarterback in his system needs is consistency.

"I think it's really hard to have an elite offense and an elite football team, championship level team when you don't have a guy that's the same guy showing up every day," Grubb said. "And that's one of the things we talked about quite a bit in the quarterback room, is being the same guy every day, so your teammates know what to expect, and that you're going to push them, you're also going to support them.

"But it's the same so that you don't show up one day and the guys are like, 'well he was on one today but the next day, you're not the same.' And just, I think there's, there's a lot of value in that."

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