Kalen DeBoer is shifting Alabama’s gears this season. After managing to pull through 2024, the 2nd-year HC is now looking confident in the new Crimson Tide team. Josh Pate stirred up some chatter after ranking Alabama as the No. 4 team in his post-spring rankings. He might not be far off, because there’s a lot to like about the 2025 roster. A big talking point of the Crimson Tide team is the QB1 battle, which is yet to see a victor. The race for the top post came down to Ty Simpson, Keelon Russell, and Austin Mack. Heaps of experts and analysts have given their expected winners. But are we going to see an announcement soon? DeBoer is in no mood to do so.
Throughout spring, all of them were giving each other some serious competition. Simpson, however, was expected to land the job. OC Ryan Grubb announced unofficially, “If we were playing a football game tomorrow, Ty Simpson would start.”Simpson’s experience alone made him a favorite choice for the QB1 role. He’s spent 3 seasons at Alabama and chose not to transfer out despite losing the QB1 battle twice. But the others have advantages of their own. Mack brings the familiarity card, having trained under DeBoer at Washington. Russell is the overall No. 2 prospect of the 2025 class and is a 5-star recruit. As the Tide heads into summer, the HC still doesn’t have a name on his lips for the QB1 job.
He told the press on May 14, “It doesn’t (end). The competition always continues. That’s this year. That’s any year.” Based on how DeBoer has approached the QB1 race, the winner will clearly not be announced anytime soon. “The biggest thing for them, the message is that they all got to keep getting better for us to accomplish what we want,” he added.
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