MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Once again, when Kalen DeBoer addressed the Alabama football quarterback battle, the Crimson Tide head coach did not address the quarterbacks by name. But he lauded Ty Simpson , Austin Mack and Keelon Russell at SEC Spring Meetings May 27 for what they have been able to do away from campus.
"These guys did a great job, all three of them, of really doing some of those leadership things, and going places, and bringing guys with them," DeBoer said. "It wasn't like one quarterback took three guys, and another quarterback took these four. They all did it together."
June, DeBoer said, will be the "next step" to finding and naming a starter, finding the quarterback who consistently leads the Alabama offense down the field with the "least number of mistakes."
"No one has a significant amount of playing time reps in a game," DeBoer said. "But obviously they are at different levels and have shown different things that they can do at a high level already this spring."
The only quarterback he named was the quarterback Alabama had to replace: Jalen Milroe , the signal caller who had elements of his game DeBoer really had never had to navigate before in an offense with Milroe's running ability.
"Jalen was certainly different," DeBoer said. "I mean that in a positive way. I mean that with the utmost respect of what Jalen's game is all about because he's got some special elements to his game when it comes to running that I really had not been able to coach or very few have seen."
Along with a quarterback competition, DeBoer said Alabama is working to navigate the "balancing act" of an offense that will use many more options in the run game with Milroe off to the NFL and with three pass-first options at DeBoer's disposal.
While Simpson has been widely considered as the favorite, DeBoer continues to call Alabama's quarterback situation a competition, a "healthy one" at that.
"I think they all respect each other," DeBoer said. "They are all going as hard as they can. They are going to step on each other's toes at times in terms of that leadership role and things like that, but so be it."
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kalen DeBoer talks Alabama football 'healthy' quarterback competition
