UPDATE: Keelon runs away with ‘Bama’s quarterback battle

I hate to say I told you (okay, I actually don’t hate to say it. I’m human — we love being right): This “battle” is over. Accuracy doesn’t change over a career. Keelon’s playmaking, combined with taking what the defense affords him, and his elevated zip on short and intermediate throws, is just the smarter play. It doesn’t matter if Austin Mack has a better deep ball, or if he knows more plays. Russell executes the ones he that he does know better. You don’t want to count out the redshirt sophomore before fall camp, but this was going to be the only live-fire scrimmage against actual competition in the Tide’s quarterback contest. It was perhaps the most important A-Day game we have had in a decade. And as I wrote this morning, there is no competition if you’ve seen both of them with your own eyeballs. You can’t disguise this. That’s just God-given talent. The youngster makes better reads, he knows his keys better, he has superior arm talent, he is smarter with the ball, and he is a danger with his legs. He doesn’t know the playbook as well, and he is still learning how to master the huddle, but that only comes with repetitions — and those are repetitions that he will get as the starting quarterback. And he’s so damn icy. Whatever “it” is, he has. While Mack was bogging down offenses in the redzone, turning it over on downs, and throwing picks, Russell was throwing fourth down darts — and as I explained this morning, he is at his best when he makes you think he is going to scramble outside of the pocket. His eyes are always a field. And he is going to find a receiver. Mongolian Scramble™️ — must credit TRL Sports Make no mistake, Keelon Russell is your starter, and he did not even give Coach DeBoer and Coach Grubb a difficult decision on the matter. He flat ran away with it today. If you missed my complete observations from practice, and the bottom line analysis, you can check that out below. UPDATE First, you’re going to want to watch all of Russell’s snaps today. It is impossible to watch this and not know that Alabama has found its quarterback before Cadbury Creme Eggs even went on sale. Beyond his prodigious arm talent, you will see what I have been talking about for several days as well: the danger that his feet present as a legitimate runner (and he scored a touchdown on the ground), and how it affects the defense, particularly with his Mongolian Scramble™️ — which I can only describe as a feigned panic outside of the pocket to exploit overcommitting defenses. In-game, Mack was outright benched for the new freshmen QBs, with Russell playing out an additional four series. And following the scrimmage, Coach KDB went put of his way to not embarrass the kid. I have no interest in embarrassing him either, but Austin Mack finished fourth out of the four quarterbacks in offensive efficiency. You can’t sugarcoat it, that’s just brutal. DeBoer ended by saying Mack is dinged up, but I genuinely think that is to not completely demoralize the sophomore before we even go into summer conditioning and the fall camp. RCW was not so circumspect — he basically said everything was just easier with Russell playing: That’ll wrap up this quarterback-only edition, and we will be back tomorrow with a complete and thorough recap, as well as our analysis of what we saw. Have a great evening, and Roll Tide.