Kalen DeBoer explains what he's seen from quarterbacks since spring practice

Alabama football’s spring practice ended back in mid-April, and now the team is getting ready to reconvene for summer workouts in the very near future. Spring and summer are the first steps in the Crimson Tide’s search for a starting quarterback, as redshirt junior Ty Simpson, redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and freshman Keelon Russell are all still competing to be the signal-caller come kickoff on August 30.

Speaking to reporters at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin on Tuesday, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked what ways he’s been able to see his quarterbacks work in the time since spring football ended.

“We get more opportunities now than you used to a few years back to be around them,” DeBoer said. “Whether it’s in the classroom, more on the field. There’s leadership, these guys were all doing things in the month of May on their own. They don’t have to let us know what they’re all doing, but you do know, because position coaches are keeping track of all their guys and understanding the workload they’re taking on and where they’re at.”

DeBoer praised all three of his quarterbacks for the way they’ve displayed leadership the past few months, specifically with how they’ve all incorporated each other in working to get better — all while still competing with each other for the job.

“These guys did a great job, all three of them, of really doing some of those leadership things, and going places, and bringing guys together,” DeBoer said. “The best part of it was they all — it wasn’t like one quarterback took three guys and another guy took these four — they all did it together. That’s what I appreciate about this group of guys. It is a competition, but I refer to it as a healthy one.

“Just because I think they all respect each other, they’re all going as hard as they can, they’re gonna step on each other’s toes at times in that leadership role, but so be it. I appreciate the way they’ve gone after it.”

While DeBoer has not named a starter yet, it seemed as though Simpson has the edge on the other two options coming out of spring practice.

DeBoer explained how the coming months will be important as each quarterback looks to take another step in the competition.

“June will be a big month to take the next step. We’re tracking everything when we get into August just like we did in the spring,” DeBoer said. “It doesn’t always comes down to who had the highest completion percentage because it’s always so close. A lot of times it’s a mixture of who’s moving the ball down the field the most, that’s most important, right? Putting points on the board. Who’s making the least amount of mistakes, but mistakes in particular.

:We’re just trying to give them all a chance, they’re all in different parts of their career where growth is happening in different ways. No one has significant amount of playing time reps in a game, but obviously they are at different levels and all have different things they’ve shown us that they can do at a high level this spring.”

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