2024 was more rocky than Alabama football is used to, as the first season without Nick Saban at the helm didn’t necessarily go how it was supposed to. The Crimson Tide missed out on the College Football Playoff after finishing the regular season 9-3 with ugly losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.
Now, Jalen Milroe is headed off to the NFL and Kalen DeBoer and his staff now have to figure out who will be replacing him under center in 2025. As it stands, veteran Ty Simpson and five-star incoming freshman Keelon Russell are going to battle it out to see who gets the starting job to begin the season.
New offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has been around great college quarterbacks before, and this competition reminds him of one of his best, Michael Penix Jr.
“I’ve told this story a couple times, but in 2022 when I got [to Washington], we didn’t have – obviously, Mike Penix wasn’t there yet,” Grubb said, per Daniel Hager of On3 Sports. “We had two quarterbacks in the room, and one was the incumbent starter. Another was a five-star freshman quarterback. I told them I was going to bring a quarterback in, that we had to have competition.
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“The No. 1 thing in the quarterback room is that should be the most competitive room on the football team. If it’s not, you probably don’t have the right guys in there. And I think for years – far before I was here – Alabama‘s done that. They brought in a lot of really good quarterbacks, let them compete and develop, let the best guy win the job and move on from there. We’re no different. That’s what we’re trying to do is develop every one of those guys.”
Grubb was the offensive coordinator under DeBoer at Washington when the Huskies went to the national title game at the end of the 2023-24 season, eventually losing out to Michigan. During…
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Publish date : 2025-06-14 02:22:00
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