Ryan Grubb compares Alabama quarterback battle to 2022 Washington battle

3/31/25 MFB Spring practice RussellKe_SimpsonTy_MackAu Photo by Kent Gidley

Alabama football’s offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb feels there are some similarities between the Tide’s current quarterback battle and the battle the Washington Huskies had at the position in 2022. 

Ty Simpson, Keelon Russell and Austin Mack are involved in a three-way quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa. Grubb feels this battle stacks up to the battle Washington had with Michael Penix, Dylan Morris and Sam Huard competing to be the starting signal caller. 

The experience Grubb and the Tide’s quarterback coach Nick Sheridan, who was also on Washington’s staff in 2022, gained during the battle gave them confidence ahead of the current competition in Tuscaloosa.

“I think the obvious statement is you got to get quarterback figured out, and you know luckily for us, coach Sheridan and I have talked about this quite a bit already, we’ve been in this position,” Grubb said in a recent interview released by Alabama Athletics. “Way back to 2022, there’s an incumbent starter there, Dylan Morris, who’s with the program here in Alabama now, and he was the incumbent. Mike (Penix) came in and then we had a young quarterback in Sam Huard that was there, and it was truly a three-way competition. You have to be very strategic about how you have those battles sort out and not just to try to check boxes and be politically correct but for the development of the room. And it’s critical that you do that the right way and let guys be challenged and know that they’re going to be ready for the field. And so whoever wins that job, I think that they’re going to be better off for the competition because we certainly felt that way in 2022 with Mike. Penix was a special player obviously in the end, but I really felt like the way he developed through that first year and had to push to earn the job.”

Grubb went on to give some insight into how the outcome of the Washington quarterback battle helped form the teams in years to come. 

“Mike had kind of been put to the side in some regards and had to kind of resurrect himself,” said Grubb. “At the end of the first spring, we didn’t name Mike the starter. We waited and Dylan Morris had a really good spring and it was a legitimate battle. We carried that into the summer, and I thought that part was really a key part of the team forming. They saw, okay, we trust these coaches, that they’re going to, everybody’s going to get a fair shake, we’re going to work hard, we’re going to be very objective in how we give information back to the players. And that was exactly what we did. And I think that formula will hold true. So we got to get to that, the bottom of that.”

Alabama football’s quarterback battle looks to continue through the spring. 

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Justin Smith is the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via @Jdsmith31Smith