Alabama’s quarterback race is still wide open, and the number that jumps off the page is the one that should make Crimson Tide fans uneasy.
Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are battling for the starting job, with a decision due by next week after Alabama’s final fall camp scrimmage. Ryan Grubb said the Tide need to settle things before the East Carolina game on Saturday, Sept. 5, and he made clear what the staff is looking for.
“Just clean operation, you know?” Grubb said. “You want to you want to feel like you get out there in the East Carolina game that, you know, you just give you guys a chance to play, you know?”
That answer is still coming, but the bigger issue is experience - or, more accurately, the lack of it.
Russell has logged 37 snaps across two games against Louisiana Monroe and Eastern Illinois, according to Pro Football Focus. Mack has 70 snaps in five career appearances, with most of that work coming in the second half of Alabama’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal loss to Indiana at the 2026 Rose Bowl. Neither one has even reached half the snaps Ty Simpson had before his first start for Alabama against Florida State to open the 2025 season.
Stack that up against the rest of the SEC, and Alabama is behind the curve. Once you remove the established veterans - South Florida-turned-Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown, Georgia’s Gunner Stockton, Arizona State-turned-LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, Oklahoma’s John Mateer, Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Texas A&M’s Marcell Reed and Texas’ Arch Manning - even quarterbacks with limited resumes like Missouri’s Austin Simmons, Kentucky’s Kenny Minchey and Florida’s Aaron Philo have more snaps than Mack and Russell.
Only Tennessee’s Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre, along with Vanderbilt’s Jared Curtis, have less starting-battle experience. Brandon and Curtis are freshmen.
That’s the hidden part of this competition, and it helps explain why Alabama is moving carefully. The staff isn’t just picking between two talented quarterbacks; it’s trying to find out who can handle the job fastest once the lights come on.
Wommack, talking about the inside linebacker battle, described himself as “a human stock market,” constantly evaluating who he trusts most. He also told his players, “I told the guys this is a really big week,” a line that fits the mood around the entire defense and the offense alike.
After the first scrimmage, DeBoer said both Mack and Russell settled in as the work went on.
“So the challenge to them now would just be starting faster every single time we have these game-like scrimmages and practices, coming out and setting the tone themselves,” DeBoer said.
That’s the part Alabama still has to figure out. The reps are limited, the battle is tight, and the confidence both quarterbacks need has to come from somewhere.
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