Alabama Offensive Coordinator Ryan Grubb Praises All Three Alabama Quarterbacks

In an interview with Ryan Fowler on Thursday, Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was asked about all three quarterbacks on the roster, and he gave glowing reviews of each as Ty Simpson, Austin Mack, and Keelon Russell compete for the starting quarterback job at Alabama.

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Ty Simpson

Grubb said if Alabama had to play a game tomorrow, Ty Simpson would be the Crimson Tide's starting quarterback. "Ty took care of the football better; he operated better. I thought he improved for an older quarterback. I know he's young to playing and starting experience. But as an older guy, I thought, especially toward the latter part of spring, he started to show more of those characteristics."

Read More: Grubb Doubles Down on Simpson Comments From Spring

Keelon Russell

Keelon has elite vision. I'll start there," Grubb said. "Because I think it always starts there. When you go out on the field at a 7-on-7 tournament, you're watching quarterbacks, you're looking for guys, how fast are they finding the movement indicator? How fast are they seeing a coverage change? How fast is the ball coming out of their hand? Decision to ball out of their hand and how clean they just see everything and put it together. Keelon has a very innate ability to do that. I would suspect he's been able to do that for a long time, kind of built that craft as he started understanding coverages more and things like that, and certainly as he gets more comfortable in our offense, you can really see the plays when it's like, he really understands this concept. This is a groove play for him, and he's making decisions really, really quickly. He's making decisions quickly, and he's getting the ball to the right people. I think as a young player, when you see that, you're like, 'Wow, this guy's really got a chance.'

"Then you pair together an elite skillset that he has. His God-given ability, and that's where magic happens for guys. You put that with just his disposition as a guy. Very calm player, especially for a guy trying to pick up I don't want to say complex, but I would say at least a system that's gonna take a little bit for most guys to get down, and he has absolutely hunkered in, is not intimidated by the process at all. It's been really impressive to see. I think for him, it starts with the vision. Because there's guys that you can get to continue to improve and make them better and they can understand things from a more strategic standpoint, but if they can't see it, I've worked with guys that can go, they can draw it up for you, they can talk the talk, and then they get out there and you snap the leather to them and they just can't see it. It just doesn't happen fast for them, and for Keelon, he's able to put those things together very quickly."

"He can drive the ball to all the corners of the field. He's got a great, tight release. The ball can push through wind and all that. He's got a high spin rate. He's super efficient with his upper half. He can get the ball out of his hand fast, make quick decisions. We're still working on engaging his lower half to generate a little bit more power. He's still got tons to work on, just like all these guys do. Really, really excited. I think the sky is the limit for him."

Austin Mack

"Austin, first of all, he's a really big guy. 6-6 and a half, 235 [pounds], he can really run and move around," Grubb said. "If you're walking out on the field and watching all the guys throw, you'd be looking at Austin, and he's probably your best pure thrower, just power, the tempo of the football, and where he can put it, touch, he is a pure thrower of the ball. He's just like Keelon, still developing as a decision maker and still getting command of the offense. And certainly the reps he's been able to get this spring, and even this summer already, is really what he didn't have his first two years because he just wasn't in a position to be a backup or in a competitive role for the starting position. So now all the coaching and reps he's been getting, I feel like he's growing every week."

"He's more mobile than people think. He's extremely intelligent, and for Austin, he probably picks stuff up as fast, if not faster, than anybody in the room. He's a very, very smart kid; now it's just letting the game slow down for him. Letting him make the easy plays look easy, because when he's on and pushing the ball where it's supposed to go, I told him, and I mean it, when you go out to an NFL team and you watch some guys throw before the game, that's what they look like. That's how Austin is. He's an incredibly talented kid."

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.