Former Alabama football quarterback and ESPN commentator Greg McElroy is hearing Ty Simpson is separating himself a little bit in the Crimson Tide’s quarterback competition.
Simpson’s experience at the college football level despite not playing many meaningful snaps looks to be an early separating factor for the redshirt junior out of Tennessee. However, Keelon Russell and Austin Mack are considered to be still in competition for the spot at this point.
McElroy said he is hearing Simpson has a firm grasp of the starting quarterback job in Tuscaloosa at the moment while answering a question from a viewer on ESPN’s Always College Football.
“Based on my understanding of what’s going in Tuscaloosa is that Ty has had a solid camp,” McElroy said. “He is in firm control of the number one job so far, that the other two between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell, those are the ones that are kind of competing for that number two spot right now. And then once we get into the summer, maybe that competition is extended. Maybe one of those guys makes a leap and makes this thing super competitive down the stretch. I don’t think we’re going to have an answer anytime soon. At least, I don’t think it’s going to make sense publicly for them to come out and to endorse one guy as the starter for fear that the fact that there’s only three guys right now on scholarship, you lose one of the other two guys, now you’re down to two and you’re back in the portal for a guy that doesn’t have a great feel for the system. If I were in charge of this quarterback competition, this thing’s going all the way into week one. As long as I can potentially string it out, I would string it out.”
Alabama football has six practices left this spring which gives each quarterback multiple practices to improve their spot in this competition.
GET THE BEST ALABAMA FOOTBALL INSIDER INFORMATION, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, AND RECRUITING COVERAGE TODAY! SIGN UP HERE
Justin Smith is the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via @Jdsmith31Smith
