Ty Simpson has to win a three-way fall camp quarterback battle to finally claim the starting job after three years on the bench in Tuscaloosa. After a rollercoaster of a season that saw him enter the Heisman Trophy race and first-round NFL Draft conversation, his year and potentially his Alabama career could be over.
Midway through the third quarter of the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal against the No. 1 Indiana Hoosiers, with Alabama trailing 24-0, Kalen DeBoer pulled his injured starting quarterback and handed the keys to his offense over to redshirt sophomore QB Austin Mack. So, who is Alabama’s backup QB?
Alabama backup QB Austin Mack takes over for Ty Simpson in the CFP
Mack was Kalen DeBoer’s top-rated recruit in the 2023 high school class at Washington. The 6-foot-6 QB from Folsom, California, was rated as the 16th-best passer in the country according to 247Sports Composite and was rated as high as the No. 8 QB in the class.
After one season redshirting in Seattle while DeBoer and veteran QB Michael Penix Jr. led the Huskies to the national championship game, Mack followed his head coach to Tuscaloosa. Mack was one of DeBoer’s first transfers, and he joined fellow Huskies Parker Brailsford, Josh Cuevas, and Germie Bernard in doing so.
So far, through his two years at Alabama, Mack has appeared in four games, three of them in 2025, and has completed 15 of his 19 passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns prior to the Rose Bowl. He has yet to make a collegiate start, but was a factor in the three-way QB battle in the preseason.
The third figure in that QB competition was 2025 five-star Keelon Russell, the No. 2 QB in the country behind Michigan’s Bryce Underwood. Mack got the nod over Russell in the Rose Bowl, so, presumably, he would be atop the pecking order if Simpson were to leave either for the NFL or for the transfer portal to exhaust his final season of eligibility, however that’s not a guarantee.
Simpson, who entered the CFP banged up, nursing an ailing right elbow along with other rumored injuries, was hurt on a hit at the end of the first half that caused a fumble. Coming out of halftime, it was reported that the Alabama coaching staff would see how Simpson felt. He started the half, leading a three-and-out, and after another Indiana score to extend the lead, DeBoer went to Mack.