Someone still has to win Alabama's QB battle, but Kalen DeBoer has previously noted that they would like to name the starter following the second - and final - scrimmage of fall camp. That's three days from now.
The entire competition between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell has been building to this point. While DeBoer said after the first scrimmage last week that he didn't feel any closer to a decision, the buzz has been squarely on the sophomore Russell, continuing the trend that began with the A-Day scrimmage.
Publicly, Russell is seen as the favorite, even if the job is still open privately.
Mack is entering his fourth season of college football, and this week is the biggest of his career to date. He needs to make a move to hold off the phenom. He's got to show command of the offense; he's got to make plays all week, and he's got to seriously outperform Russell in Thursday's scrimmage.
Austin Mack needs a big week to hold off Keelon Russell in Alabama's QB battle
There's no guarantee that DeBoer and OC Ryan Grubb will be ready to name a starter after Thursday's scrimmage, but they would like to do so. A year ago, Ty Simpson was named the starter after the first scrimmage, but this battle is closer than that one. It also suggests that Russell is ahead, and they want to extend the battle in appreciation for Mack staying when he could have taken an easier path to a starting position elsewhere in the portal.
It's still possible that the battle extends into the season and DeBoer and company use Week 1 against East Carolina as an audition for both quarterbacks, but it feels unlikely. The theme of camp has been developing as much continuity on offense as possible before the season gets started, and you need your QB established in order to do that.
Russell's legs could be a real weapon in the offense this year. With the sophomore at QB, the Tide's offense will be a heavy diet of RPOs, and his ability to make something out of nothing could help cover for an offensive line that is going to need a few weeks to gel.
Mack can run, too, just not on the same scale as Russell. He's got the arm strength to make every throw in this system, and as Ryan Coleman-Williams noted a few weeks ago, Mack is the "human playbook." Nobody knows the system better than he does.
Mack brings a high floor to the table for the Tide's offense. He's a capable SEC starter. But if Alabama wants to contend for the national championship this season, they need the ceiling that Russell can bring.
Russell is the ceiling raiser, capable of having the type of sophomore season that Tua Tagovailoa and Bryce Young had before him in Tuscaloosa.
Mack is going to do everything he can to delay Russell's ascension to the throne by one more year. But it's crunch time for the rising senior. He knows it, DeBoer and Grubb know it, and Alabama fans know it, too.
He needs a big week to swing the competition back in his favor.
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