There were plenty of rough edges in Alabama’s first half at Kentucky, and Keelon Russell owned most of them.
The No. 12 Crimson Tide opened with an intentional grounding, followed by a two-yard loss on the ground, and then a throw that landed straight in a defender’s hands at the 4-yard line before being returned for a pick six. In an instant, Alabama was down 7-0, and the mistakes kept piling up from there.
“It was just bad quarterback play by me,” Russell said. “I made simple mistakes.”
That shaky opening didn’t define the night. Russell settled in after halftime and helped Alabama pull away for a 45-17 win Saturday at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky, in his first SEC and road start. He finished 16 of 23 for 188 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, and Alabama improved to 2-0, 1-O SEC.
“He’s a fighter,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said.
The first half was a mess of turnovers. Russell threw the pick six, then lost a fumble on the next drive while trying to escape pressure. On Alabama’s fifth possession, he tossed another interception just before halftime, and Kentucky turned that into a field goal.
“At the end of the half, the pick, totally forced ball that shouldn’t have been thrown,” Russell said. “The fumble, if I had better ball security.
The throwing lane on the first pick. Just a throwing lane on the first pick.
Finding the throwing lanes.”
Even while the offense was stumbling, Russell wasn’t left to sort it out alone. Teammates kept coming over to him on the sideline, and quarterbacks coach Bryan Ellis and receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams sat with him too, telling him to “pick his head up.”
Russell said the support mattered.
“I felt guys’ presence every time,” Russell said. “Even when things were going bad, coming off the sideline after the pick, after the fumble, the guys were just phenomenal.”
For a young quarterback making only his second college start, the road environment and the SEC stage were part of the learning curve. DeBoer said Russell handled the moment with poise.
“He stays cool and calm,” DeBoer said. “He believes in himself.”
The biggest change after halftime was simple: Russell stopped forcing so much. That made the offense cleaner, and it kept Alabama out of trouble. In the second half, he went 8 of 12 for 65 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over.
“We’ve just got to help him understand the situation and help keep us on the field,” DeBoer said. “I don’t want to take his aggressiveness away from him because there were some plays he made out there too.
It’s a fine line. He’s going to go help us win games.
He did that I thought. He went and played winning football in the second half.”
Russell’s style had already shown up in the opener against East Carolina, when his willingness to extend plays helped Alabama. Against Kentucky, that same approach also led to mistakes.
“Just can’t make sloppy mistakes,” Russell said. “Quarterback is already a hard position to play but you can also make it an easy position by doing the right things.
Coach Ellis says if you play quarterback, there are only three components: get completions, get completions, get completions. You get completions, you’re going to be a quarterback for a long time.”
DeBoer also pointed to the importance of decision-making on run-pass option plays, noting that sometimes the right move is simple.
“He’s an aggressive kid,” DeBoer said. “We love the things he can bring to the table on that.
But when there’s guys in your face and coming at you from the backside, you’ve got to throw through them, it gets knocked down, just hand it off. I think there were some running lanes even we might be able to see.”
Alabama’s ground game gave Russell help after halftime. The Tide managed just five rushing yards in the first half, then exploded for 150 in the second. Daniel Hill led that surge with 104 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown, averaging 5.8 yards per carry.
Russell said Hill’s night lifted the whole group.
“made the whole offense confident.”
The defense helped, too, and Alabama also came out of the game wanting Russell to keep improving in another area: sliding more and taking fewer unnecessary hits. DeBoer said that was part of the conversation after the season opener, and it appeared to show against Kentucky.
Now the next step is the other part of quarterbacking that DeBoer emphasized - knowing when to get rid of the ball and live for the next snap.
“I did feel like he made a lot of improvements from last week to this week,” DeBoer said. “Especially before the ball is even snapped.
There’s those areas. And now we can continue to work on the execution when the ball is snapped.
Just knowing how to manage each down and distance and each situation that comes his way.”
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