What to expect from the Alabama offense with Austin Mack starting vs. Vanderbilt

Austin Mack is expected to make the first start of his career for Alabama at quarterback against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday.

Mack is in his third season at Alabama and his fourth under Kalen DeBoer. The quarterback has limited game experience, but if Mack has shown one thing in his limited action as a quarterback at Alabama, it’s that he likes to push the football down the field and take shots. In his first taste of action in an Alabama uniform against Mercer, he threw three passes. One of those was a 31-yard deep ball Rico Scott pulled in towards the back of the end zone.

Alabama football’s offensive players will be competing at positions across the board this spring.

The Austin Mack & Keelon Russell QB battle will get a lot of attention, but competition elsewhere is just as intriguing.

https://t.co/y4r8IGpZjy

https://t.co/Mj4iJIm13N

— Justin Smith (@Jdsmith31Smith) March 3, 2026

Mack has only completed two passes this year, and the most he ever played in a game was against Indiana in the Rose Bowl when Ty Simpson went down with an injury. He completed 11 passes for 103 yards against the Hoosiers.

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Austin Mack fits it in the breadbasket for Germie Bernard 😳

— The Sports Standard (@_SportsStandard) January 1, 2026

With Saturday’s game set to be Mack’s first start, a complementary run game would be very beneficial for the Tide. Alabama’s rushing attack has not been great as of late, but the Tide did start the season effectively running the football. Alabama football’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb talked about the Tide needing to improve its rushing attack earlier this week.

“In the offensive staff meeting, I said no media line bullshit, but we got to focus more on the run game, and it’s got to get fixed,” Grubb said. “We had such a good groove happening, and I thought LSU took us out of a couple things that we had early in the football game that we popped a couple runs early and got behind the sticks and too many third-and-longs, too many second-and-longs, to be able to be out there. And then that helped put us in a position of 3rd and XL that you don’t want to be in, especially against a pass rush like that. I think for us one of the huge focuses is how do we get the run game back and what do we got to do to get the ball in the right people’s hands.”

Mack is a big quarterback at 6-foot-6 and 232 pounds, and he has shown that he is comfortable operating from the pocket and standing strong in it. While there may be more designed rollout plays run when Russell starts for the Tide, these may not be as popular in a Mack-led offense. He will likely operate from inside the pocket more often.

The California native has flashed pocket presence in the past. There have been times when he has moved up in the pocket when pressure was coming from the edge and stayed relaxed, displaying a great feel in his limited action.

While he is not known for his ability to run and is not considered to be really athletic, Mack can use his feet to pick up some yards and has flashed an ability to make the most of his limited rushing attempts by getting up the field when he is called upon to run, as he seems to have a good feel for when he needs to run. This likely means there will not be as many designed quarterback runs if Mack is the Tide’s starting quarterback.

Mack is expeceted to lead the Alabama offense against Vanderbilt at 11:45 on Saturday.