Alabama quarterback competition ‘not there yet,’ says Ryan Grubb
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Following Day 2 of fall camp, Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was asked about the traits that distinguish the 3 quarterbacks competing for the starting job this fall.
“How long do we have?” he quipped.
As Alabama works its way into a lather in fall camp, Grubb is preaching 2 very simple messages to his quarterbacks. The first is to take care of the football. The second is to show down-to-down and day-to-day consistency.
“One of the biggest things we’re stressing right now is minimizing negative yardage plays,” Grubb said. “Starts with us making sure we’ve got the right Mike points on protection or run scheme. So, making sure we’re always moving forward and the o-line is on the same page.”
In the spring and summer months, both Grubb and head coach Kalen DeBoer signaled that Ty Simpson. a redshirt junior from Tennessee, would be the starting quarterback if the Crimson Tide were forced to make a decision in the moment. But they always stressed that the competition was not decided.
In the early moments of fall camp, nothing has changed in that regard.
Grubb joked that he would ideally like to name a starting quarterback “yesterday,” but that’s not feasible right now.
“You’ve got to let it run its course. It’s not there yet,” Grubb said. “We’ve been through this before, more than once. You’ve just got to let it run its course. We’ve got a pretty detailed plan on how we’ll figure those things out and information that we share with the guys each day. When it’s the right time, we’ll be ready to pull the trigger.”
Simpson is competing with redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell. The former was a DeBoer/Grubb recruit at Washington who followed DeBoer to Tuscaloosa last offseason. The latter is a 5-star recruit with a bright future.
“All these guys, they’re in different levels of their progression in college and I think all of them, just like any position, have a lot of different strengths,” Grubb said. “I think that Ty, right now, is continuing to show a ton of command. I thought he did a better job today than the other 2 guys with that. So, he continues to progress as a leader.
“Keelon’s ability to see the field and just his vision, his innate ability to make a play, even potentially when there’s not one there, is really, really high-level. And then Austin just has elite arm talent. Big guy that’s strong and can power through things.”
Grubb was asked directly what it would take for Simpson to move from “starter if we needed one right now” to “the guy” and his answer was, in several respects, illuminating.
“He’s got to do it every day between now and Florida State, when we start that preparation,” Grubb said. “Whoever that person is, he’s got to be able to come out and show that it’s clearly him. That’s what this football team needs. And all 3 of those guys know that.”
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
