When Does Alabama Football Want to Name a Starting Quarterback?

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama's quarterback competition inched closer to a conclusion on Saturday as the Crimson Tide held its first scrimmage of fall camp inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The program must replace Jalen Milroe under center after he led the Alabama offense for the last two seasons and thus far everything coming out about the trio vying for the job has been positive.

Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb made headlines in the spring, declaring Ty Simpson as the leader in the clubhouse at the end of spring practice, but noted these decisions take time in his first fall camp press conference.

"You've got to let it run its course," Grubb said on Thursday during Day 2 of fall camp. "If it's not there yet, we've been through this before—more than once. We've got a pretty detailed plan on how we'll figure those things out and the information we share with you guys every day. When it's the right time, we'll be ready to pull the trigger."

The right time became a bit clearer on Saturday as head coach Kalen DeBoer continued to compliment the trio's ability to play within the system and take care of the football. DeBoer noted it was important the program name a starting quarterback soon.

"I feel like we're getting closer," DeBoer said. "I would've said before camp, we definitely got to make a decision by the time we get done with the second scrimmage and I would anticipate that being the case. We'll see how the next few days go. It's two good showings, I think, especially by Austin [Mack] and Ty [Simpson] again today and again Keelon [Russell] making the progress that we hoped for. You can see what his ceiling, it's just a matter of more reps."

Alabama has 11 more fall camp practices and just five practices before next week's second scrimmage, ramping up the sense of urgency and bringing the competition to a head as the Crimson Tide is three weeks away from heading to Tallahassee for the season opener against Florida State.

DeBoer went on to compliment the quarterbacks for taking advantage of explosive play opportunities and for challenging the Crimson Tide pass rush by breaking the pocket and finding lanes to salvage yards. The winner of the competition will make their first start in college football, but will be surrounded by immense talent, throwing the football to Ryan Williams, Germie Bernard and Miami transfer Isaiah Horton.