Kalen DeBoer tells why Keelon Russell got more snaps on A-Day

Photo via Alabama Athletics

Over the course of spring practice, everybody has been wanting to know one thing: who’s going to start at quarterback? The truth is that the answer to that question won’t come for a while, but A-Day certainly tends to be a big tell.

While the Crimson Tide has run the course of spring practice, the quarterback competition hasn’t seemed to progress at all, with coaches and players saying that both Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are similar in play style and constantly doing their part.

However, people finally got a chance to preview the quarterbacks when the Tide hit Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium for its annual A-Day on Saturday, with both quarterbacks getting a combined total of 14 drives.

That number wasn’t split evenly, though; Russell got nine, while Mack saw just five. While Russell did get more chances to lead drives throughout the scrimmage, the majority of his came during the red zone period, in which he got five-straight drives.

After the conclusion of the scrimmage, head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke about what led to Russell playing more.

“Just had to limit Austin [Mack] with some stuff,” DeBoer said. “This week was a little bit where Keelon [Russell] got more reps, just with some things Austin’s going through. Austin is good for the most part, but wasn’t able to finish it out. He’ll be fine.”

Mack should be fine in the long run, hopefully getting back to practices this week. It wasn’t the best day for him performance-wise, either. He completed just six of 12 passes, accounting for 101 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

On the other hand, Russell had an outstanding day. He threw 21-33 for 240 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. His pick, and plenty of his incompletions, came late into the red zone period as he was seemingly gassing out after multiple drives.

These performances came just a little over a week after Alabama held its second scrimmage of the spring, in which it was a heavy install week for the quarterbacks, neither of whom seemed entirely comfortable or gave great showings.

DeBoer gave his assessment of where he believes the quarterbacks are at now, particularly with installs and red zone offense, after the Tide’s final scrimmage, which included about six total red zone drives.

“I thought they both looked more comfortable today,” DeBoer said. “Again, both sides, kind of trying to get back to basics… both sides trying to get some of those red zone concepts. So, we haven’t practiced much, and then you also saw a couple of big receivers not getting lined up with a lot of confidence and had the quarterbacks double-checking, and that’s the stuff we’ve got to work on next week, with just getting to clean all the time. To where there’s not a question of whether someone knows their responsibility. So, again, that goes along with the installs. Red zone is a part where you got to be cleaner. If you’re not on the same page, you know, we saw a takeaway. I can’t say it was because someone didn’t know to do their job or what they were supposed to do. But that’s a big deal. So, we were very good in the red zone last year, as a team. Pretty balanced between offense, defense and our execution down there. So, we got to keep working on it. We’ll do a lot with two-minute drill and things like that next week, too.”