After Alabama's A-Day spring scrimmage, Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer said that Austin Mack "will be fine." DeBoer was talking about Mack being "dinged up" during practices that led up to A-Day. More specifically, the comments were in relation to Keelon Russell getting far more reps than Mack during Saturday's scrimmage.
When the scrimmage format moved to redzone work, Mack got one series, and Russell got five while Mack watched from the sideline. In total for the day, Russell ran the Crimson Tide offense nine times to Mack's five.
The disparity might be insignificant, but for one thing. Russell's four-touchdown pass production was much greater than Mack's one touchdown. Russell had one interception in 33 pass attempts. Mack had one interception in 12 attempts. Mack completed 50% of his passes. Russell completed 63.6%.
Austin Mack has impressive quarterbacking tools. He could be a starter for many teams. He might start the 2026 season as Alabama's starter. But he has a tough task ahead of him to hold off Russell.
The stat comparison in a controlled scrimmage is too small a sample to suggest that Russell leapt ahead of Mack in Alabama's starting quarterback battle. Stats aside, there were other obvious differences between the Tide's two top quarterbacks on Saturday. Keelon Russell showed more poise and more potential to be a game-changer. Mack has an advantage of learning the DeBoer-Ryan Grubb offense fr years. Reports this spring have said Russell is still learning it. It didn't look that way on Saturday. The younger quarterback appeared to have a firm grasp on the offense schemes.
Still no Alabama Football QB1
Neither player won nor lost the Alabama football QB1 job on Saturday. More offseason will follow, and each of three fall camp scrimmages will be an audition. Even so, there were plenty of Crimson Tide fans who were in Bryant-Denny on Saturday who will disagree. To them, Keelon Russell is Alabama's future, and the future is not some indeterminate point. It is now. Those fans are not anti-Austin Mack. They see such extraordinary potential in Russell that they believe he can lead the Crimson Tide back to the glory days, beginning as a starter in September against East Carolina.
Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb may have a different perspective from the fans. If they do, it may be closely held until August or later.