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Greg McElroy identifies Alabama’s biggest question entering spring practices
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Greg McElroy is high on what his alma mater has entering the 2025 season. However, one major question for Alabama football is the key storyline heading into the spring practice session.
During the latest episode of his “Always College Football” show, McElroy broke down the main question facing Kalen DeBoer entering his 2nd season, and it’s a pretty clear one. That question centers around the starting quarterback battle with Jalen Milroe off to the NFL.
Milroe served as the started for much of the final year of Nick Saban leading the program and DeBoer’s first year in Tuscaloosa. The good news for McElroy is that he believes the Alabama defense will be “rock solid” in Kane Wommack’s 2nd year, but the stakes are high for the QB battle.
“The offense now has a new man calling the shots, and that’s Ryan Grubb. The big question is who is going to separate themselves in the quarterback competition? It’s probably going to be the most hotly debated QB contest in the SEC next year,” said McElroy. “There will be other competitions going on, but this is probably the one with the biggest stakes. I really believe that if Alabama can get stability at the QB spot, they can really win a national championship next year.”
That’s the kind of regular pressure that resides with the Crimson Tide, but McElroy believes it is Ty Simpson who has the “inside track” to the starting job after serving as the primary backup last season. He believes there is a clear gap between Simpson and 5-star true freshman Keelon Russell and former 4-star recruit Austin Mack.
“The gap exists right now between Ty Simpson and everybody else, but how big is that gap? That will be determined as the spring goes along,” McElroy explained.
We’ll see who grabs the lead for the QB1 spot as we emerge from the spring with Alabama looking to improve from a 9-4 record last season. Whoever wins the job will inherit an offense with the 6th-best national title odds for the year, coming in at +1400 per DraftKings.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
