Former No. 2 QB Recruit Named Top Candidate to Replace Ty Simpson at Alabama

Coach Kalen DeBoer faces a pivotal third season ahead at Alabama after losing four games in each of his first two seasons with the Crimson Tide, including a College Football Playoff quarterfinals exit this year.

And for the third time in his three seasons in Tuscaloosa, DeBoer will have a different starting quarterback.

After inheriting incumbent starter Jalen Milroe ahead of the 2024 season and turning to Ty Simpson last season, DeBoer has a decision to make with redshirt-freshman and former five-star prospect Keelon Russell and redshirt-junior Austin Mack set to compete for the job in the spring.

J.D. PicKell, a college football analyst for On3 and a former player at Cornell and Baylor, weighed in on that QB competition and how he thinks it should play out.

"Let's also not be naive about this. I think if you gave Ryan Grubb, the OC out there, and Kalen DeBoer truth serum and said, 'Who do you want to be your starting quarterback in '26?' I think once that serum kicked in, it would be Keelon Russell pretty quickly," PicKell said.

"Reason being, I think his ceiling is higher, I think his skill set gives you a lot to be excited about, I think his runway with him staying in Tuscaloosa is exciting. Not to knock Austin Mack, but if you are able to play Keelon Russell, if he's ready to play, I think he's the one that gets you the most fired up. I don't think it's really that controversial to say."

Russell was the No. 2-ranked QB prospect -- and No. 2 overall national prospect at any position, per the Rivals Industry Rating -- in the 2025 recruiting class, behind only fellow five-star QB Bryce Underwood, who started for Michigan as a true freshman.

The 6-foot-3, 194-pound Russell starred for a loaded Duncanville (Texas) High School team and was named the national Gatorade Player of the Year. He played in just two games as a true freshman at Alabama, completing 11 of 15 passes for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Mack, meanwhile, was a four-star top-250 national prospect in the 2023 recruiting class out of Folsom, California, who signed with DeBoer at Washington and spent one season there without getting on the field. He transferred to Alabama when DeBoer left for the Crimson Tide after that season.

Mack saw action in five games over the last two seasons, completing 26 of 35 passes for 267 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs, plus a rushing TD. Most of that came last season while serving as Simpson's backup.

Whoever wins the job will be looking to match or exceed the strong production Simpson delivered in his lone season as a starter, completing 64.5% of his passes for 3,567 yards, 28 TDs and 5 INTs (plus 2 rushing scores) for an 11-4 Tide team.

"The intel I would want to hear coming out of spring practice if I'm a Crimson Tide fan is that regarding that quarterback battle, Keelon Russell, he's running away with this thing," PicKell said.

"Yeah, Austin Mack's still getting reps, Austin Mack's still going to push him relative to 'iron sharpening iron', all that stuff, but sometimes in the quarterback battle it's not really a battle halfway through. It's just kind of like an, 'Oh, this dude's better.' It was kind of that way a year ago with Ty Simpson. ... It was always Ty Simpson wire-to-wire."