ATLANTA — Alabama has the look of a team on the brink of making the College Football Playoffs, aiming for the success it enjoyed during Nick Saban’s run of six national championships in Tuscaloosa.
The Tide’s ultimate level of success is expected to hinge on quarterback play, where former 5-star recruit Ty Simpson is the leading candidate to replace departed star Jalen Milroe at the position.
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“Ty throws a catchable ball, he’s smart, he’s been in college football now for four years, he’s seen the ups and downs,” DeBoer said on Wednesday at the College Football Hall of Fame. “He’s got great relationships with the team, you know, he’s a leader that way. He’s really owned things.”
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Alabama, coming off a 9-4 season that included a 5-3 SEC mark, has two other quarterback options that DeBoer feels good about.
“And then Austin Mack, if he walked in here, the guy’s 6-foot-6, 230- 235 (pounds), he’s got a presence about him, and that carries over to how he throws the football,” DeBoer said.
“Keelon Russell … early enrollee that came in and just learned the system, has taken these huge strides in the course of the spring,” DeBoer said of the 5-star freshman from Duncanville, Texas. “I’m confident he’s going to make big jumps as well. So those are the three.”
ESPN GameDay host and Alabama graduate Rece Davis believes the position is key.
“If they get good quarterback play, and I don’t mean adequate — good — whether it’s Ty Simpson, Austin Mack or Keelon Russell, they might win the national championship,” Davis said on a recent ESPN podcast. “If they don’t, it’s probably a season like last year, three or four losses.”
Indeed, Alabama has most every other necessary box checked, including the coaching box where Ryan Grubb has returned to DeBoer’s side after a season as the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator.
“Him getting the chance to come here and just add to our staff at the level you’re talking about with an elite, elite offensive mind,” DeBoer said. “Our familiarity with each other, the efficiency we have when it comes to the day-to-day work off season, in season, it certainly helps us gain even more momentum going into this fall.”
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DeBoer and Grubb have coached together for 12 seasons, previously at four and now five different schools.
The coaching duo beat Texas in postseason play in back-to-back years while at Washington (2022-23), and now they’ll be teaming up to try to ensure Alabama finishes ahead of the Longhorns as SEC members.
Getting Grubb back to oversee the offense is one more reason to believe DeBoer will be more efficient and more comfortable in his second year replacing Saban.
DeBoer’s first Tide team beat eventual SEC champion Georgia 41-34 in Bryant-Denny Stadium but lost two of the next three games at Vanderbilt (40-35) and at Tennessee (24-17), and then dropped a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma that led Alabama to miss out on making the 12-team College Football Playoffs field.
“We were undefeated at home, but we also struggled on the road, and we start this year on the road and go to Florida State,” DeBoer said.
“We know that they’re gonna have some improvement as well, and so that’s gonna be a great environment to get tested early on, and so we don’t need to look at anything beyond that as far as our preparation and what went by because none of it matters unless we take care of business and do what we’re doing to be at our best and have a good game at Florida State.”
It seemed a roundabout way for DeBoer to say Alabama knows the importance of beating the Seminoles when the teams meet at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 30 at Doak Campbell Stadium.
Indeed, DeBoer acknowledged — when directly asked at the SEC Media Days while standing before hundreds of media at the podium — that team did not meet the “Bama Standard” last season.
“If you internally ask us, no, we fell short of making the playoffs as simple as that, right?” DeBoer said. “I think there’s a lot of things that I’m super proud of that are happening within the program that are part of the progression. Yeah, we want it right now too. And so, yeah, we fell short.”
Florida State has done its part this offseason to help DeBoer keep the fire lit in his players’ bellies, with Seminoles quarterback Thomas Castellanos telling On3, “They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”
DeBoer feels like his team has plenty of motivation and focus, even without the bulletin board material.
“You talk about getting the right people …. Inside your building,” DeBoer said. “I feel we certainly have that, so continuity is what Year Two is all about right now, (and) that trickles down to your players.
“The leadership and the staff are there, but really the culture that we want to try to exude, try to have, it comes to life through our players, and they are making that happen.”
