It's the peak of the offseason for Alabama football's quarterback battle. There's nothing happening officially, but according to head coach Kalen DeBoer, Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are still putting the work in.
"In June, we get more opportunities now than you used to a few years back to be around them, whether it's in the classroom or on the field," DeBoer told reporters at SEC spring meetings. "So there's leadership. These guys all were doing things through the month of May on their own.
"And as much as they don't have to let us know what they're all doing, you do know, because position coaches are keeping track of all their guys and understanding the workload that they're taking on and where they're at. These guys did a great job, all three of them, of really doing some of those leadership things and going places and bringing guys together."
Alabama's coaches announced after spring practice that Simpson was leading the race. The redshirt junior served as the Crimson Tide's primary backup this season.
The competition for the starting job isn't over yet though. Mack, who followed DeBoer from Washington, and Russell, a five-star true freshman, are both still in contention.
On Tuesday, DeBoer said the three quarterbacks have continued to be good teammates through the competition.
"It wasn't like one quarterback took three guys and another quarterback took these four," DeBoer said. "They all did it together, and that's what I guess I appreciate about this group of guys. It is a competition. I've referred to it as a healthy one just because I think they all respect each other. They're all going as hard as they can. They're going to step on each other's toes at times in that leadership role, but so be it. And I appreciate the way they've gotten after it."
Alabama will begin preseason camp in early August. DeBoer has said he would like to have a starter chosen around a week-and-a-half before the first game.
UA opens the 2025 season at Florida State on Aug. 30.
"We're tracking everything in August, just like we did in the spring," DeBoer said. "And it doesn't always come down to who had the highest competition percentage because sometimes it's so close. It's a lot of times a mixture of who's moving the ball down the field the most? That's what's most important, right, is putting points on the board. So who's keeping the ball? Who's making the least amount of mistakes? Big mistakes in particular.
"But then you're also trying to give them all a chance because they're at different points in their career, where their growth is happening in different ways. No one has a significant amount of playing-time reps in a game. But obviously, they are at different levels and all have different things that they've shown us that they can do at a high level already this spring."