{"id":1184482,"date":"2026-08-24T10:28:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=1184482"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:28:42","slug":"alabama-makes-it-official-keelon-russell-named-crimson-tides-qb1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/alabama-makes-it-official-keelon-russell-named-crimson-tides-qb1\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Makes it Official: Keelon Russell Named Crimson Tide&#8217;s QB1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Alabama Crimson Tide\u00a0has its starting quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>According to reports over the weekend from numerous outlets which were confirmed by\u00a0<em>Yea Alabama<\/em>, sophomore former five-star recruit Keelon Russell has been named QB1 by\u00a0head coach Kalen DeBoer\u00a0and the rest of the staff after winning the battle against Austin Mack.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sources: Alabama has named Keelon Russell the team\u2019s starting quarterback. He won the job on camp over Austin Mack. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ckgiQ4JEoS\">pic.twitter.com\/ckgiQ4JEoS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteThamel\/status\/2091180501876769129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Keelon Russell has officially been named the starting quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>Read more here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yO1M9qD9Yt\">https:\/\/t.co\/yO1M9qD9Yt<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9fJVMxbgOX\">pic.twitter.com\/9fJVMxbgOX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Yea Alabama (@yea_ala) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/yea_ala\/status\/2091182352152097000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Things had been trending this way\u00a0for the last several weeks, and ultimately it\u2019s not a huge surprise to see the staff go in this direction.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Mack serving as the backup in 2025 with Russell behind him as a freshman, ultimately the talent of Russell was able to shine throughout spring practice and fall camp, and DeBoer decided the tantalizing upside of the Texas native was enough to give him the chance to take the reigns now.<\/p>\n<p>Russell is the highest-rated quarterback recruit in school history, even more so than Bryce Young or Tua Tagovailoa who were each extremely notable five-stars coming out of high school.<\/p>\n<p>He will still have to prove a ton, but in terms of on paper talent, it does not get a whole lot better than what Russell brings to the table as a thrower of the football and an athlete with his legs.<\/p>\n<p>Russell\u2019s first career start will come on September 5 against East Carolina before hitting the road in week two to take on Kentucky. Tide fans who were already excited about the season just got a whole lot more giddy with the news.<\/p>\n<p>The future is now for Alabama, and that future is Keelon Russell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The\u00a0Alabama Crimson Tide\u00a0has its starting quarterback. According to reports over the weekend from numerous outlets which were confirmed by\u00a0Yea Alabama, sophomore former five-star recruit Keelon <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/alabama-makes-it-official-keelon-russell-named-crimson-tides-qb1\/\" title=\"Alabama Makes it Official: Keelon Russell Named Crimson Tide&#8217;s QB1\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4874,"featured_media":1184483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,91,147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1184482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crimson-tide-bama-tide","8":"category-alabama","9":"category-featured-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/edd250830068_bama_at_fsu.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184484,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184482\/revisions\/1184484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}