As Alabama’s spring camp rolls into its final week, first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb says there isn’t any separation between his quarterbacks. Grubb was quoted in an ESPN story published Monday, providing insight into Alabama’s current quarterback competition between Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell.
"I think we've got three really, really good quarterbacks, and I mean that," Grubb told ESPN. "I don't think anybody has separated. They're all playing good, but they're not playing great yet. You're looking for the guy that's going to be consistent, that can show up the same and make the same plays all the time."
According to ESPN’s article, Mack has recorded 162 first-team reps while Simpson has logged 158. Following Friday’s scrimmage, head coach Kalen DeBoer said that Russell has primarily worked with the second team while also receiving first-team reps.
Simpson served as the backup behind starter Jalen Milroe for the past two seasons. Last year, he completed 14 of 25 passes for 167 yards while adding 44 yards and a touchdown with his legs.
Entering his fourth year with the program, Simpson is viewed as the favorite to land the starting job this fall. However, he still has some work left to do in order to hold off Mack and Russell
While Grubb would like to have a quarterback named sooner rather than later, he told ESPN that Alabama’s current battle is progressing according to plan.
“I wasn't going into this thinking, 'Oh, I bet by practice 11 this will be done,'" Grubb said. “I didn't think that at all, and I didn't think that because I thought all three of them were good players.”
The last quarterback battle Grubb oversaw occurred during his first season at Washington working under Kalen DeBoer in 2022. During that year, Indiana transfer Michael Penix went on to beat incumbent starter Dylan Morris for the job two weeks into preseason camp.
Penix went on to throw for 9,544 yards and 67 touchdowns the next two seasons en route to being drafted by the Atlanta Falcons with the 10th overall pick in last year’s NFL Draft.
That being said, Alabama finds itself in a different situation with far less experience behind center this fall.
“That was a little bit different than our situation here," Grubb said. “Mike had started a lot of games. Dylan had started games. We had two guys that had Power 5 starting experience. So, yes, you would have loved for this guy to have grabbed it and run with it, but we're just not there yet.”
Alabama will return to the practice field Tuesday as part of three practices before concluding camp with its A-Day event on Saturday.
