Spring practice brings another Alabama football quarterback competition. Let guessing games begin | Goodbread
Settle in for some guesswork.
The moons of NFL draft entry and inexperience, as they naturally do every few years, have aligned for another spring quarterback competition for Alabama football. And that alignment, at least at Alabama, can be counted on for a solar eclipse − a temporary period of relative darkness − when it comes to the question on every fan's mind: Who will helm the 2023 Crimson Tide offense at the game's most important position?
Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young is off to the pros, leaving coach Nick Saban to launch his 17th round of spring drills at Alabama with several options but no clear answer. Monday marks the first of 15 practices, which will conclude with the annual A-Day scrimmage at Bryant-Denny Stadium on April 22.
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Last year's primary backup to Young, Jalen Milroe, and freshman Ty Simpson have combined for one career start, Milroe's against Texas A&M. He's one of the very best athletes on the UA roster, and looked it a week earlier on a 77-yard touchdown run that was largely the spark for a win over Arkansas after Young had been lost to a shoulder injury. A week later, with Young still sidelined, he slung touchdown passes of 10, 29 and 35 yards to three different receivers in a 24-20 home win over the Aggies. Simpson's freshman experience amounted to 30 snaps and five pass attempts.
Neither's playing experience could be described as a bedrock.
Charged with a level of oversight on this competition will be new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, the former Notre Dame quarterback whose leadership in the quarterback room will be a tone-setter. But 15 practices and three scrimmages, frankly, isn't a lot to go on. Some coaches handicap quarterback battles by at least declaring a frontrunner, if not a winner, at the conclusion of spring drills. Saban isn't one of them.
Not for the AJ McCarron-Phillip Sims battle of 2011.
Not when Blake Sims beat out Jake Coker in 2014, and certainly not when national attention fell on the competition between Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts in 2018.
Incoming freshmen Eli Holstein and Dylan Lonergan, both on campus since enrolling early in January, aren't to be discounted either. Saban proved a willingness to turn to freshmen at the position in 2016, when redshirt freshman Blake Barnett started a season opener against USC − and by game's end true freshman Jalen Hurts was the Crimson Tide's future at the position.
But in each case, the competition carried through fall camp, and this one figures to be no different. By then, the darkness will lift.
For now, the eclipse is only beginning.
Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football quarterback competition: Jalen Milrose or Ty Simpson?
