Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer speaks to the media Monday in Tuscaloosa while recapping the Crimson Tide’s strides during spring practice. “I think the momentum that we carry here into May is critical,” DeBoer said. “You know, the next three months or so, 100 days, is really going to set up the six months to follow. The question we’ve been challenging our guys with, going back to January, when we saw the want to, we saw the desire, is can you sustain that level of intensity?” (Jimmy Wigfield/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
TUSCALOOSA — Ty Simpson would be Alabama’s starting quarterback if the Crimson Tide played Florida State this week, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said Monday.
But Alabama doesn’t play the Seminoles in the season opener until Aug. 30 and Tide coach Kalen DeBoer pointedly declared he is not satisfied with the quarterback play coming out of the spring.
“No questions on the quarterbacks today,” Grubb joked with reporters before issuing the dispatch Alabama fans have been waiting on.
“I know everybody wants to know about that position,” Grubb said. “If we’re playing a football game tomorrow, Ty Simpson would start and he earned that, OK? I know that’s the line everybody’s looking for.”
Simpson, a redshirt junior, is a former five-star prospect who has completed 29 of 50 passes for 381 yards and no touchdowns in three years.
Otherwise, Grubb and DeBoer have not decided on where Keelon Russell and Austin Mack fit in — or if they have, they’re not sharing it publicly.
But whoever the quarterback is will throw to what DeBoer said has the potential to be the nation’s best receiving corps, foremost among them former Saraland star and freshman All-American Ryan Williams, who led Alabama in receiving last season.
“I like the mindset we’re developing,” DeBoer said. “I say developing because it’s something I think we’re capable of — but we are far from there yet — and that is to be the best receiving corps in the country. That’s not just one or two guys or three. That’s the whole unit.”
Williams will rotate into the slot this season to give him higher-percentage throws and create bigger mismatches.
“There’s a lot of things you can do with Ryan,” DeBoer said. “We never want to take away when he’s out there isolated but the ability for him to get inside, he can get matchups against pretty much anyone. But I also think that we don’t want to just put him in a spot. I’ve seen slot guys get bracketed and so forth, so we need to make sure that our system allows guys to get to all areas of the field. Because of (Germie Bernard) and these other guys — we can go on and on and on through our roster right now — that will allow Ryan to be able to do that. You want the greatness of others to help you become great and that’s something that’s really big that’s going to help Ryan have even a bigger season because of the others around him.”
It’s not out of the question DeBoer will play more than one quarterback against FSU. Mack transferred from Washington when DeBoer succeeded Nick Saban and Russell is a 6-3 freshman five-star prospect who is obviously the best athlete of the group.
Grubb said Simpson, Russell and Mack all possess what he called the “competitive stamina” to play the position, that they’re ready “for that type of scrutiny and that type of just the competition level that you need to have and the mindset that you need to have as a quarterback to play at any level, much less in the SEC or at Alabama.
“Austin made huge strides,” Grubb said. “He came out and developed and took care of the football and things like that but Ty showed out a little bit better and then, honestly, Keelon exceeded my expectations.”
Russell doesn’t act like a freshman quarterback, Grubb said, and is reminiscent of former Washington star Michael Penix, who led the Huskies to the national championship game in DeBoer’s and Grubb’s last year there before DeBoer took the Alabama job.
“We challenge him with not giving in to saying, ‘I’m a freshman,’” Grubb said. “He reminds me so much of Michael Penix just in his demeanor. He has such a calm demeanor. I thought he made huge strides. But the message really is that we’ve got to be even better.”
DeBoer didn’t proclaim the battle to be the starting quarterback over.
“We’re not where we need to be in the quarterback position yet,” he said. “We’re not where we need to be as a team. I hope we don’t ever think that it’s going to be where we need to be. Anywhere I’ve been, I’ve never been where you finish spring ball in April and you’re like, ‘We’re good to go.’ People ask, ‘Are you ready for the season?’ No, I’m not. We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and August and that’s the case with the quarterback position.”
Simpson’s experience gives him the advantage for now but Russell is filling Simpson’s rear-view mirror.
“Ty continues to trend upward,” DeBoer said. “Ty has been around and has just done a nice job. I think the trending upward is a big piece of it. Ty’s an accurate thrower. There’s always going to be balls that every guy wants back but I think the ability to learn from your mistakes and learn from other people’s mistakes, to be able to comprehend things, not be overwhelmed, he’s just had more time.”
Russell needs more consistency and it would be tough to start the true freshman in the SEC.
“Keelon had some really big days (in the spring),” DeBoer said. “You saw a lot of flashes of what he is capable of and then you saw times where it was just consistency and sometimes that means not making the big mistakes. It’s learning. He’s in it, his head’s in it. He’s the same guy every single day, that’s what you love about him. He’s going to be a guy that you can attack a defense with.”
Mack has advanced rapidly, DeBoer said.
“Austin’s growth, going back to where he was at not even just a year ago but just the middle of the season, I’m seeing him continue to go up,” DeBoer said.
But it was difficult getting a true read on the quarterbacks because they couldn’t be hit during spring practice.
“You’re always on edge and the rest of the team has heard, ‘Stay away from the quarterback’ more than they’ve ever heard in their entire life,” DeBoer said. “There were a lot of questionable sacks that the defensive line felt like they got wronged on and cheated on by me because I own the quarterback whistle. They’ve got to stay away but yet they got to get close enough to get a sack and I blow the play dead. We have to make sure those guys were all healthy and upright.”
The Tide’s receivers room is stuffed with playmakers, including Williams, Bernard, Miami transfer Isaiah Horton, redshirt freshman Rico Scott and converted defensive back Jalen Mbakwe, among others.
“Whoever goes out there, the more confidence they get in the job,” DeBoer said. “I like the versatility that a lot of these guys have inside and outside. You don’t know where so-and-so is going to line up and that might not just be the receivers. That might be the running backs. They can be out-flexed, they can be in tight to the box. If you’re a tight end, you can put your hand on the ground. So, we’ve got a lot of position flex, a lot of versatility. The guys are understanding the system, not just the what and the how of what they’re supposed to do in their execution.”
Horton has been hard to ignore this spring.
“I had high expectations for him coming in and he has definitely not let us down,” DeBoer said. “He just went about his work and guys that come in and just do the work, they develop respect amongst the team quicker than not because that’s what our guys care about — who’s going to come in, who really wants to be a part of this culture, who’s willing to work. He has done that. He is a productive guy who is well-rounded. It’s not just a red-zone thing. He’s got that presence about him. He’s showing out in a lot of different ways. Guys who catch it, coming in full speed and not breaking stride, that’s just one indicator of how he’s really fit in.”
The emergence of Daniel Hill as a power running back will also give Alabama a counterpunch to Jam Miller.
“He’ll end up being a really good one for us,” DeBoer said. “He’s got those instinctual things, the running and cutting and things you expect out of a tailback. But there are some subtle things that a 240-, 245-pound guy doesn’t do like he does. He even catches the ball out of the backfield just natural. He had some runs in live sessions where he was bouncing off of them but I think it was more them bouncing off of him. That was really exciting to see.”
