Former Alabama quarterback says Tide QB competition is down to 2 players

Former Alabama football quarterback, AJ McCarron feels the Crimson Tide’s quarterback competition is between two players at the moment.

Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are still actively competing for the position, according to Alabama’s coaching staff. However, McCarron feels this is a battle between the older quarterbacks, a few weeks ahead of the Tide’s season opener against Florida State.

“I love having talk for fans and trying to build it up and everything, but Keelon Russell is not going to play,” McCarron said via “The Dynasty” podcast. “He is young. He is super talented. It’s just not his time right now. It’s Ty, Austin Mack. Everybody that I’ve talked to, that I hear from up there, that’s what it comes down to. It’s Ty’s job to lose, and if Ty just starts playing extremely bad during camp, well then they got to go back to the drawing board and say, all right, well, do we ride with him in this first game or do we go with Austin Mack? They have a bunch of guys that are capable that are plenty talented enough, but it’s not a bad thing.”

Alabama has not named a starting quarterback for the 2025 football season.