Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron says the Crimson Tide need to do more than just ask Keelon Russell to carry the load.
On “The Dynasty” podcast, McCarron said the young starter needs help around him as Alabama tries to get him back on track.
“People need to understand he is a young quarterback,” McCarron said. “He is going to make mistakes.
You can’t say, oh, well, he’s got to play. I understand he has to play better.
You also need everybody else to play better. I think he’s got to get back to his base and his mechanics and playing to the basics of not trying to make the hero play every time, taking a checkdown, living with a punt, a field goal.
It’s fine to end a possession with some sort of kick. It’s not fine to do it the entire game.
And there’s going to be times where you got to push the limits, right? But early in the game and your defense is playing well, I don’t have to make crazy decisions, and I had to learn that at an early age and early in my career, being on such a veteran team my first year in 2011.
And I think he needs, he needs some of that as well, because this defense will keep you in games.”
McCarron knows the program well. He won three National Championships at Alabama, including two as the team’s starting quarterback.
Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb echoed the idea earlier this week, saying he wants to get Russell into a better situation to succeed.
”I think, I mean, I’ll say it, I’ll go on record, I think Keelon Russell is the best quarterback in America, period, and I know that’s not what showed up on Saturday,” Grubb said. “And again, I can only take accountability for myself and getting Keelon in a better spot because I know he is that kind of player.
So going back to the game plan, what’s easy for Keelon? And it’s not that Keelon is incapable of handling tough things or difficult concepts and things like that.
It’s just in those type of environments in the first time against a really good defense, you got to make it as clean as possible. And so going back, I think everything would go back to, is this clean enough for the guys?
And so clearly it wasn’t. It’s not like they went out there and, you know, didn’t want to execute.
There was just some issues. At times we got beat at the point of attack and, you know, that’s going to happen against good teams, but we just got to have better answers.
Two weeks in a row with no points in the second half is pathetic.”
Russell and the Alabama offense get their next chance to respond Saturday against Texas A&M.
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