Keelon Russell had 'phenomenal' week before A-Day, but Alabama has 'great competition' at QB

Someone asked Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer if the Crimson Tide had a “quarterback controversy” with Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. But DeBoer doesn’t view the position battle that way. He actually sees it as the opposite, he said Monday on The Miller’s Edge on Tide 100.9.

“I don’t think of it as a controversy, not at this time of year,” DeBoer told former Alabama linebacker Christian Miller. “It’s a great competition we have going on. That’s a good thing. I say that in a positive way because these guys have gotten after it. It’s exciting, I know, for fans to see these guys and see what we’ve been seeing in practice.

“And sometimes, you got to be careful not to oversell what’s happening each and every day on our practice field, but that was more of the same of what we’ve seen from Keelon. And Austin was a little bit limited, but Austin’s highlight reel would be something that people would be super impressed with, as well.”

Mack and Russell evenly split the quarterback reps through the first dozen drives of Saturday’s A-Day scrimmage. But after leading his first red-zone series, Russell stayed on the field for the next four, finishing out the two-hour scrimmage by playing five consecutive possessions.

As DeBoer said, Mack was limited after getting “dinged up” in practice earlier in the week.

“So, Keelon got a chance to take advantage of a few extra reps, and I thought he did exactly that,” DeBoer said. “And that’s what he should do, and I’m proud of him for it. Both of them are getting better each and every day. He certainly, again, has taken advantage of the opportunities he’s getting. 

“I thought it was a phenomenal week for him last week. I thought he grew a lot from Scrimmage 2 to Scrimmage 3. But he’s been making plays. Austin’s been making plays all spring long.”

Russell had a big day throwing the football on A-Day, completing 21 of his 33 pass attempts for 240 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Mack, on the other hand, threw for 101 yards, one touchdown and one pick on 6-12 passing. Even before Mack was shut down for the day, it was clear that Russell had the better day, bouncing back from the second scrimmage.

“You can mislead people with one or two words when I talked publicly and I mentioned in an interview I think right after the second scrimmage about these quarterbacks not living up to the level they played at, or something, to the standard or something. And everyone is thinking they played awful,” DeBoer said. “Well, they just didn’t play to the level they had been playing, which I think we were excited about.

“I think, again, you saw Saturday, the throws aren’t going to be a problem as far as arm strength, arm talent.”

Alabama has two more spring practices before wrapping up the season. Both quarterbacks will look to build on their springs while continuing to compete for the starting spot behind center.

“Now, it’s the other things, the managing of things,” DeBoer said. “A couple of times, the ball was in — we were vulnerable just because of where the ball was at. A couple of balls got picked. At least one other could have probably got picked because the ball was on the ground a time. It didn’t get lost. But those are the things, I mean, it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t stay on the field.

“And I think overall, the quarterbacks have done a really, really good job of taking care of the ball. Understanding that, hey, we need to be aggressive, but we also got to make sure we’re not taking these unnecessary risks and just checking it down sometimes. A lot of times it’s just great, and then you get your shots at the right time because you get behind the defense.

“So, these guys have done a great job. I think there’s a lot of belief and confidence by our whole team in our quarterback group. But like you said, Keelon had a great day. I was excited to see him take that next step and continue to grow.”

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