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Kalen DeBoer shares ideal deadline to name Alabama starting quarterback

1918632_10206777287683070_1367905321192383146_nby: Charlie Potter05/19/25Charlie_Potter
Alabama QBs
Austin Mack, Keelon Russell and Ty Simpson (Courtesy of Alabama Athletics)

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said last week that “competition always continues” when asked about the Crimson Tide’s quarterback battle. But a starter will eventually be named, and DeBoer has a deadline in mind that he would like to make that decision, if not before.

“There’s been roughly a similar kind of timeframe throughout fall camp,” said DeBoer in an interview with Greg McElroy and the Always College Football podcast. “The last week and a half, you want – we usually have a little bit longer of a phase of game (week), we call them ‘bonus practices,’ leading up to Week 1, and there’s a weekend before and then a few days before that.

“That’s kind of when you really for sure like to have the starter named and him be able to start really being in sync with his receiving corps, jelling that way and really dialing in on the reps. But if you feel like you’re at the point earlier – it’s been a few practices earlier, maybe a week earlier at some point. I’ve had a lot of these kind of competitions over the years … when you do it for 25 years.”

Alabama has three scholarship quarterbacks competing for the starting job behind center now that Jalen Milroe is a Seattle Seahawk. Redshirt junior Ty Simpson, redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell battled throughout the spring, and Simpson exited the 15-practice slate as the frontrunner for the job. But competition continues.

Simpson has the most experience, having served as Milroe’s backup each of the last two years, but he split the first-team reps with Mack during April and March. The three quarterbacks will keep pushing each other when the team reconvenes for summer workouts later this month, and DeBoer shared what he wants to see from the eventual winner of the race.

“In the end, it’s who can move the ball down the field,” DeBoer said. “People sometimes get caught up into who’s great now? Who had the best completion percentage and all those things? Those are all important, right? But I think in the end, it’s who’s moving the ball down the field for the ones, the twos, the most consistently when you’re here in practice each and every day.”

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