With spring football gone, the countdown is on, because Sept. 5 and East Carolina is less than 4 months away and there’s so much for Kalen DeBoer to sort out between now and then.
That significant leap from Year 1 to Year 2 still ended in utter disappointment as Alabama was ravaged in the Rose Bowl by eventual national champion Indiana, showing just how far the Crimson Tide still must go to become top-end elite again.
If there’s going to be another leap forward in Year 3, from September through November, or just maybe into December and January, then DeBoer and his staff must be savvy from May through August to set the 2026 Tide up for maximum success.
There’s a laundry list of questions to answer during a 4-month runup to Week 1 that will race by in a flash, but we’ll narrow it down to 5 key issues for DeBoer to solve before the games start counting again:
1. Is it Keelon Russell or Austin Mack, or is it both?
Yes, we said both. There’s no set rule that Kalen DeBoer has to go with either Russell or Mack and stick to that for 3 months (or longer). When the dust settles on the Alabama quarterback rock fight that was set in motion during spring football, DeBoer could ultimately choose to use both signal callers this fall, leaving foes and opposing coaching staffs to prepare for both guys.
Is that the likely path? Probably not, but it’s been done before and specifically in the SEC at Florida, where offensive mastermind Steve Spurrier famously used both Danny Wuerffel and Terry Dean in the mid-1990s. A decade later, Urban Meyer also experimented with using multiple quarterbacks during the Gators’ 2006 national title season, keeping defenses guessing with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow.
Both of those instances resulted in huge success, at the highest level of college football and with hardware to show for it. The point is, Russell and Mack are both super talented with differing skill sets but have never been The Guy, so just maybe it’s the exact recipe for a dual-QB system in Tuscaloosa in 2026.
Or maybe Russell, who shined during the A-Day Game, continues to surge this summer and wins the job outright before fall camp commences.
Or maybe it’s Mack, who was “dinged up” during the A-Day Game, according to DeBoer, paving the way for it to be Russell’s day instead of possibly his, who rights the ship this summer and creates a different narrative going into fall camp.
There are multiple scenarios that could go down, including the Russell-Mack duel going down to the final days before the season opener. Regardless of what’s decided, DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb must get this one right if the Tide are to return to the College Football Playoff. It’s a delicate issue that DeBoer must handle with care and confidence for his Year 3 vision to work.
2. Is there a true No. 1 RB, or will it be by committee?
This one isn’t just related to the quarterback battle because of backfield proximity. It’s also related because college football teams have won and won big with a running back-by-committee approach. There’s no law that says a team must have 2015 Derrick Henry to hoist the national championship trophy in January. The Tide’s fearsome duo of Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon ran circles around foes all the way to the promised land in 2012.
The 2026 Alabama running back room might not have a Henry, or a Lacy or a Yeldon, but there’s simply no way that Kalen DeBoer can preside over a repeat of the 2025 running game disaster that weighed the offense down right to New Year’s Day. The slimmed-down Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley and AK Dear return, and they’ll try to turn the Tide’s running game back toward the dominant entity it’s almost always been.
Naturally, the revamped offensive line is going to directly affect if that actually happens, or to what degree it happens, and DeBoer would surely love to see someone emerge. That never happened last season, with Jam Miller continually hampered by injuries, and it was only because of the emergence of Ty Simpson that Bama got as far as it did. DeBoer might not have that luxury this fall at the QB position, so it’s imperative he figures out the right recipe for success in the backfield, either with 1 centerpiece carrying the load or getting those yards by committee.
True freshmen EJ Crowell and Trae’shawn Brown could also factor in. The point is, DeBoer desperately needs his running game to actually be a factor in 2026.
Will Alabama make a return trip to the College Football Playoff? Here’s what the latest Kalshi odds say:
Prediction Markets College Football Playoff Qualifiers 2026 Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Notre Dame 77% Oregon 76% Miami (FL) 74% Texas 71% Georgia 71% Ohio St. 70% Indiana 67% Texas Tech 62% Ole Miss 38% LSU 36% Predict3. How’s the inside linebacker situation going to shake out?
Alabama’s defensive line projects to be loaded with versatility, led by a brigade of talented transfers. Alabama’s secondary projects to be one of the best in the country, led by star safeties Keon Sabb and Bray Hubbard. And Alabama could feature one of the best pass rushers in the nation in Wolf linebacker Yhonzae Pierre.
But at inside linebacker, the guts of the defense, the Tide will be forced to replace a ton of production. Deontae Lawson, Justin Jefferson and Nikhai Hill-Green are gone, and they’re gone to the NFL, which screams why Kalen DeBoer (and Kane Wommack) have their work cut out for them in trying to replace 3 of the Tide’s top 4 tacklers from last season.
Caleb Woodson, a highly touted transfer from Virginia Tech, seems like a lock to be one of those answers, but who else will step forward besides Woodson? QB Reese, Cayden Jones and Luke Metz would seem to be the other candidates, but no matter how it shakes out Bama will have 2 new starters at inside linebacker this fall and that’s a really scary reality considering the talent they’re trying to replace.
4. Is Bama’s answer at kicker really from Northern Ireland?
Lorcan Quinn, the talented Marshall transfer by way of Northern Ireland, appears to have the edge on much-maligned kicking incumbent Conor Talty going into the summer. Quinn outdid Talty in the A-Day Game, and Talty is trying to dig his way out in 2026 after an uneven 2025 that included plenty of boos from the home fans.
This will be a fascinating battle, and as much as Kalen DeBoer defended Talty amid his struggles last fall, he has to be honest with himself and pick the kicker who’s going to give Bama that late edge in those really close SEC battles that could determine how far the Tide go.
DeBoer can’t afford mediocrity at the kicker position when the margin for error is so thin and the pressure on him to win is so intense.
5. Does Alabama really have an identity problem?
The cries about Bama becoming too soft were loud and livid after the Playoff loss to Indiana, when the Tide were bullied in the trenches on both sides of the ball. This wasn’t the rough-and-tumble Alabama brand of football that Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, among other famous Crimson Tide coaches, had instilled over all these decades.
It’s one thing to have the talent necessary to win SEC and national titles. But just as important, maybe more important, is having the right identity. Will Kalen DeBoer fix that identity in 2026, or does he even think that he has to? Winning in the trenches almost always translates to winning on the scoreboard, and DeBoer’s 2025 edition didn’t win nearly enough in the trenches.
That alone demands his full-blown attention over the next 4 months, so there’s no identity crisis in September.
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