DeBoer lists the traits Alabama football’s next starting quarterback must possess

Photo via Alabama Athletics

Kalen DeBoer listed the traits Alabama football’s next starting quarterback must possess while appearing on “The Martin Houston Show” on Thursday.

Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are still competing for the Tide’s starting quarterback role ahead of the 2026 season. As fall camp inches closer, DeBoer is aware he will have to make what could be a tough decision. The Alabama football head coach is looking for a quarterback who possesses several key traits.

“The guy’s got to move the ball up and down the field, have a presence about him to have something that where he’s impacting the team around him, and they believe in him… not making mistakes that can lose you the game,” DeBoer said. “These guys are human, and it’s not going to be perfect. We understand that. But it’s in practice, who’s moving the ball up and down the field with the most consistency.”

Mack and Russell served as backups to Ty Simpson during the 2025 season. The word or separated both of them as co-backups to Simpson on Alabama’s official depth chart last year. DeBoer told Martin Houston and company he remains confident in both signal callers.

“We got two guys that again, they haven’t taken these quality snaps at this level,” said DeBoer. “They’ve taken a lot of snaps on the practice field, and they’re doing a great job. I know our players respect these guys. I mean, just at such a high level, and I know that in different ways… I know how well our guys are respected when it comes to the quarterbacks, and they’re able to still lead our team and do it individually, but also because of who they are and their character, they’re able to do it really together. They’re lifting each other up. They’re not afraid to compliment someone and be like that’s going to work against me, and who’s becoming the quarterback.”

DeBoer could announce a decision on the competition during fall camp before the Tide takes on East Carolina to kick off the season. He knows the decision will be one that either Mack or Russell does not want to hear.

“The hardest piece is going to be obviously the decision and just knowing that one of these guys isn’t going to be the guy, and they’ve got to be ready because we know what this game’s about,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got a process here that we go through. It isn’t about the charts all the time and who completed the most routes on air and 7-on-7 and things like that because you could check it down every single play, right, and get a lot of high percentage.  We just got to have that feel, and we use that data on every throw that these guys make in practice to help us. And we’ve done that again, going back, really, the data piece going back to really the 2012-13 time, and then even obviously before that with quarterback competitions and how you evaluate in the process that we’re going through.”