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Alabama is expected to start Austin Mack at quarterback against Vanderbilt rather than Keelon Russell, per ESPN's Pete Thamel.
"Starter Keelon Russell (ankle) is expected to be available, but the expectation is the Tide staff holds him out and lets his ankle heal," Thamel wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). "Russell has been listed as probable."
As Thamel stated, Russell has been dealing with an ankle injury, which he sustained in last week's win over LSU. The sophomore stayed in the game and proceeded to throw three touchdowns.
“We gotta keep moving and winning and playing our best football," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said on Monday when asked how he's balancing Russell’s health with his progress. "So, you’re weighing how he feels, what the medical staff says as far as — we never want to hurt him, and we will never do that. But he’s gotta go out there and obviously be able to play at the level that can help us win.
"So, we got a lot of confidence if we had to move to Austin [Mack] at some point. But he’s day-to-day. I mean, he continued to finish off the game. And so, that’s a good sign right there. I mean, this kid’s a really tough kid.
“And he’s had other things that have popped up in games where he’s played through it. You guys have seen probably that, too, when you’re really paying close attention. And he stays out on the football field, keeps doing his thing. So, for him to play at the level he played at, getting dinged up a little bit, is impressive in itself. I’d expect him to do everything he can to get on the football field. And we’re never gonna put him in an area of safety where that’s a concern.”
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Russell and Mack were in a quarterback battle for the ages this offseason, with the former obviously coming out on top. Mack has completed 3 of 4 pass attempts this season, serving as the primary backup to Russell.
Mack was one of the many Washington players to transfer to Alabama after Kalen DeBoer took over as head coach. He was Ty Simpson's primary backup last season, and accumulated 228 passing yards and two touchdowns while completing 24 of 32 attempts in four games.
This includes when Simpson "cracked" his rib late in the first half of the Rose Bowl loss to Indiana, as QB2 subbed in and completed 11 of 16 pass attempts for 103 yards and led the Tide to its first and only points of the day via a field goal by Conor Talty.
"Every game I kind of just tell myself, 'Be Ready,' and I've never been surprised," Mack said after the Rose Bowl. "Anything could happen and I knew I was one play away from getting in the game. So when they told me I was getting in the game, it was just like, 'Let's go and let's just play ball.'
"It was the moment I was ready for. It was something I had been preparing for the whole season. Something I put a lot of work in to get to. Obviously, it's a big stage — the Rose Bowl against the No. 1 team — but I was ready for it."
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Hunter De Siver is the lead basketball writer for BamaCentral and has covered Crimson Tide football since 2024. He previously distributed stories about the NFL and NBA for On SI and was a staff writer for Missouri Tigers On SI and Cowbell Corner. Before that, Hunter generated articles highlighting Crimson Tide products in the NFL and NBA for BamaCentral as an intern in 2022 and 2023. Hunter is a graduate from the University of Alabama, earning a degree in sports media in 2023.
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