Alabama’s quarterback pipeline is getting hard to process.
After Richard Todd went No. 6 overall in 1976, the Crimson Tide went decades without another first-round quarterback. Then Tua Tagovailoa arrived in 2020, and since him, three of Alabama’s next four primary starters - Mac Jones, Bryce Young and Ty Simpson - ended up as first-round picks.
Five starts into his Alabama career, Keelon Russell is already looking like the next name in that line.
That’s not a declaration. It’s not a Heisman coronation.
But it is a sign that Alabama keeps finding elite quarterback play, and Saturday’s 56-23 win over Mississippi State offered another loud reminder of that. Russell was the engine behind it all, and the Crimson Tide’s No. 6 ranking looked justified in a game that never really stopped leaning Alabama’s way.
Here are the extra notes from the victory for Alabama, which moved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in the SEC.
Russell was the obvious headliner, and he earned the easiest game ball on the page. He finished with four total touchdowns and no turnovers, while stacking up seven passing plays of 15 yards or more. He also looked sharper than he did in his first road start, and the jump was noticeable.
His best work came on third down. Russell went 6 of 7 for 146 yards on third downs and threw two touchdowns in those situations. One of the biggest plays came on third-and-19, when he hit Lotzeir Brooks for 39 yards.
“No better feeling than when Keelon throws a bomb on third and long,” center Racin Delgatty said. “Lotty is such a great receiver.”
The other game balls went to a pair of defenders and playmakers who made the day even more one-sided. Freshman edge rusher Xavier Griffin led Alabama with nine tackles and added a sack, with PFF crediting him for two. PFF also charted him with a team-high four pressures and six stops, which it defines as “tackles that constitute failure for the offense.”
Receiver Rico Scott also turned in a signature outing. He caught two touchdowns and led Alabama with two contested catches, according to PFF.
He did have a drop, but that was the lone blemish on a day that also underscored how useful he’s been as a blocker. It’s worth remembering he had once planned to enter the transfer portal before staying put in Tuscaloosa.
Honorable mention goes to Trae’shawn Brown, who added two rushing touchdowns and forced five missed tackles, per PFF. He also led the team with four first downs. For a freshman three-star recruit, that’s a strong return.
One of the more memorable moments after the game came from Ryan Coleman-Williams, who celebrated in front of the Alabama fan section while dancing with a cowbell, as captured by AL.com senior sports reporter Michael Casagrande. Coleman-Williams had another reason to be in a good mood: he scored again, giving him touchdowns in three straight games for the first time since the start of his freshman season.
That score also pushed him into the top 10 in Alabama history for receiving touchdowns. He moved past Julio Jones, who had 15, and is now tied with Ozzie Newsome at 16.
There were still a couple of things Alabama can clean up, even in a blowout. Fumbles were one. The Tide might have put Mississippi State away even earlier if not for a muffed punt by Dijon Lee, followed later by a Daniel Hill fumble after Alabama’s defense had forced one of its own and given the offense the ball back in good field position.
Sacks allowed was the other issue. Alabama didn’t surrender a ton of pressure overall - PFF credited Mississippi State with five total pressures - but the Bulldogs still got to the quarterback four times. That’s part offensive line, part other factors, but it remains an area to tighten up.
Beyond the box score, Alabama continues to look like a team that wears opponents down. Through five games, nobody has been able to match the Crimson Tide’s physicality for 60 minutes.
Georgia may be the team that can test that, but so far Alabama has handled fast starts, slow starts and everything in between without letting anyone stay in the game for long. The revamped fronts on both sides are a big reason why, and the tight ends have become part of that physical identity too.
The defense, meanwhile, keeps flashing real upside. Alabama has scored four defensive touchdowns in five games, and while that pace is probably hard to sustain, this has a strong case to be Kane Wommack’s best defense in Tuscaloosa.
The front seven is driving that possibility. It’s a group that can win, and dominate, without needing Wommack to manufacture pressure with scheme.
The offseason buzz about that unit looks well-founded.
Mississippi State is Alabama’s best win so far, though the schedule has been fairly soft up to this point. The next game in Tuscaloosa will bring the season’s toughest test.
A loss wouldn’t automatically send up alarms, but a win would change the conversation fast. It would be the kind of result that starts to move Alabama from a good team to one that belongs in the national-title picture.
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Alabama Found Two Reasons To Feel Better Before Georgia
Before Alabama turns its attention to Georgia, there were a couple of encouraging signs worth noting from the latest game. Keelon Russell gave the offense a lift by throwing for 285 yards and three touchdowns while adding a score on the ground, and the run game got meaningful help from a deeper group of backs, including Traeshawn Brown and EJ Crowell.
Xavier Griffin also stood out on the other side of the ball, leading the team in tackles and helping make several key defensive plays. Just as important for a defense looking to steady itself, Alabamas run front was much firmer against Mississippi State, holding the Bulldogs to 18 rushing yards and giving the Tide something concrete to carry into a bigger test. [Read more 🡒]
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Keelon Russells rise has become one of the more notable developments around Alabamas early-season start, and the quarterbacks recent stretch has only sharpened the attention. After throwing four touchdowns in the spring game and then piling up 10 passing touchdowns and 970 yards over three games, he has helped steady a team that rolled to a 56-23 win and moved to 5-0.
For Alabama, that kind of production matters not just in the standings but in the broader SEC picture, where quarterback play can change the feel of a season quickly. Around the country, other programs were dealing with their own storylines in Week 5, but Russells emergence has given Alabama a promising answer at the position and left the rest of the league watching what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Has A Real Shot To Climb After Saturdays Top 25 Chaos
Saturdays college football slate did Alabama a favor, even before the next AP Top 25 poll gets posted. USC barely survived an upset scare, Ohio State and Missouri both had results worth watching, and a few teams around the country did enough to create the kind of weekend that tends to shake up the middle and upper tiers of the rankings.
For Alabama, the bigger point is simple: the Crimson Tide have a real path to move up if the voters decide the chaos mattered as much as the resumes. The poll will be refreshed soon, and with conference play still unfolding, there is a decent chance the order gets jumbled in a way that opens the door for Alabama to climb if enough teams ahead of it wobble. [Read more 🡒]