- - It's about to get real for Kalen DeBoer at Alabama as Ty Simpson heads to NFL

Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAYJanuary 9, 2026 at 5:13 AM

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Kalen DeBoer, let’s see what you can do. It’s time. For some Alabama fans, it’s beyond time.

Where is the quarterback guru Alabama must have thought it was getting when it hired DeBoer from Washington? Was what DeBoer and Ryan Grubb, his right-hand man, did with Michael Penix Jr. a mirage?

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is off to the NFL after a pretty good — but nowhere near elite — season as a one-year starter for DeBoer. Simpson was as tough as a steak roasting under a heat lamp on a buffet line, playing behind a leaky offensive line and operating an offense with a non-existent run game. He did the best he reasonably could. There's my epitaph for the Simpson era.

A throwback to the Nick Saban era, Simpson's roots trace to Alabama’s 2022 roster. The number of Saban leftovers keeps shrinking within DeBoer’s program.

I’m still waiting on the apparent quarterback masterminds who developed Penix at Washington to show their faces in Tuscaloosa.

DeBoer and Grubb, his offensive coordinator, did a fine job with Simpson. He was no Penix. No Bryce Young. No Mac Jones. No Tua Tagovailoa.

Maybe that’s an unfair bar for any man to meet, but that’s DeBoer’s task. That has become the Alabama standard. By the end of the Saban era, few programs were developing quarterbacks as well as Alabama.

And if DeBoer’s not going to build ferocious defenses like Saban once did — there’s no evidence he will — then he and Grubb need to assert themselves as offensive aces.

Clock's ticking. Ask some of Paul Finebaum’s callers, and they’ll tell you they’re getting tired of waiting.

Alabama QB competition shifts to Kalen DeBoer's guys

But let’s hang on just a second before we let a Finebaum caller convince us DeBoer is a fired-coach-in-waiting. Wait to see what DeBoer does with one of his guys.

Keelon Russell, a five-star DeBoer signee one year ago, must now be taken seriously in Alabama's quarterback competition as a rising redshirt freshman. Austin Mack, who followed DeBoer from Washington, looks like a prime contender, too. He flashed some promise in the second half of a Rose Bowl blowout loss.

Alabama can’t settle for promise. It needs production.

Whoever wins the job will be a DeBoer man, through and through. The coach's reputation is on the line. The success of Alabama’s next quarterback, or lack thereof, will be a critical bellwether for DeBoer’s future.

The goodwill he built by beating Oklahoma in a College Football Playoff opener was gone by halftime at the Rose Bowl.

If he's not going to build a defense like Saban’s, then he had better build an offense and develop quarterbacks as well as Lane Kiffin.

DeBoer’s final offense at Washington ranked No. 12 nationally, feasting on Pac-12 defenses. His offense this season at Alabama? It ranked 84th nationally. Indiana mauled it.

That won’t cut it in T-Town.

Even Saban’s cranking up some heat on his successor.

“I’m hoping they get the ship going in the right direction here,” Saban said on ESPN. “It’s not bad to get in the playoffs and finish in the final eight, but (it’s) not the expectation around here, which is tough to live up to, sometimes.”

So, you say you want to coach Alabama, huh?

Saban prefaced his critique by complimenting DeBoer and pointed out he had a lot of roster defections to overcome after his hire. That’s lovely, but you don’t need a thermometer to tell you the mercury's rising around DeBoer as he enters Year 3.

Nothing turns down the heat quite like a star quarterback.

[ This column first published in our SEC Unfiltered newsletter, emailed free to your inbox. Want more commentary like this? Sign up here for our newsletter on SEC sports. ]

Keelon Russell, Austin Mack candidates to be Alabama QB

In Russell, DeBoer has an inexperienced but highly touted quarterback. He appeared in just two games as a freshman.

In Mack, he has a guy who has thrown 35 career passes.

If he questions whether either is poised to be elite, then DeBoer must sprint to the transfer market with a wad of cash in hand. This is no time to play the long game of quarterback development.

If he intends to coach Alabama for as long as Saban did, or even as long as Gene Stallings did, he needs a shark in the pocket next season, not a project.

DeBoer couldn’t raise the bar on Jalen Milroe. He did a bit better with Simpson, but Alabama fans must be wondering whether he’ll ever develop another quarterback as good as the one he coached at Washington.

There’s no more time to waste.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Clock ticks on Alabama's Kalen DeBoer as Ty Simpson heads to NFL draft

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