There is 1 month to go and seemingly a million questions to answer before Alabama kicks off a crossroads season that might include Kalen DeBoer‘s reckoning as Crimson Tide head coach.
A fall camp with a laundry list of things at stake began this week, and before you know it East Carolina will come calling to Bryant-Denny Stadium on Sept. 5. Everybody who cares for and hates on Alabama football will have the closest eye on whether DeBoer has his team ready to go from jump this time around, after last season’s Week 1 flop at Florida State.
That crucial question will be answered in due time. For now, as fall camp gets cooking in Tuscaloosa, those million or so questions about a Tide team some are loving and some are doubting will all get sorted out. That long list of August storylines is swirling, but some storylines simply get moved to the front of the line.
With that, here are the 5 biggest storylines surrounding Alabama football as camp commences:
1. The battle to be Bama’s starting quarterback, of course
The duel between Keelon Russell and Austin Mack shouldn’t just head this list, it’s arguably the biggest fall camp storyline in all of college football. This is Alabama, after all, and when the starting quarterback position isn’t settled yet at Bama and it’s August, it’s cause for major headlines whether in Tuscaloosa or somewhere in Arizona. The final leg of the Russell-Mack tug-of-war is on, and it promises to be great daily theatre in the late summer heat.
Thankfully for Kalen DeBoer, who will be hit with questions about his QB derby ad nauseum all month, things will be sorted out by early September and either Russell or Mack will have a firm grip on the position in time for the season opener. Or maybe not. College football analyst Greg McElroy, who knows a thing or 2 about playing the quarterback position at pressure-packed Alabama, recently predicted that the QB race would extend into the first few weeks of the regular season.
So, just maybe, Bama’s biggest storyline of fall camp will also be Bama’s biggest storyline of early September. You wouldn’t think this scenario would be ideal as the Crimson Tide search for the successor to Ty Simpson who’s going to lead them a little further than where Simpson got them last season. But, hey, whatever it takes right? This high-profile QB battle of attrition is also a battle without a clock attached to it. The only thing that it demands of DeBoer is that he ultimately gets it right.
Prediction Markets College Football Playoff Qualifiers 2026 Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Notre Dame 86% Ohio St. 77% Oregon 76% Miami (FL) 75% Georgia 70% Indiana 67% Texas 65% Texas Tech 63% Alabama 43% LSU 41% Predict2. The battle to be Bama’s other ILB beside Caleb Woodson
Two new starting inside linebackers will grace the field for the Tide this fall, with Alabama losing a trio of standouts at the position to the NFL. There is a ton of production to replace, and there will be a ton of attention paid to the guys stepping in for Justin Jefferson, Deontae Lawson and Nikhai Hill-Green. Woodson, the much-heralded Virginia Tech transfer, solves one half of that brand new equation for Alabama at inside linebacker in 2026.
But what gives with the guy lining up next to Woodson? Will Birmingham product QB Reese get his big break and win that starting spot in his third season in the program? Reese is the consensus favorite entering fall camp to be Woodson’s wingman in the middle of Bama’s defense, but a lot can happen in the August Alabama heat. Reese has earned his reputation so far as a special teams dynamo, and the coming weeks are going to tell the tale if Reese is ready to finally make that jump.
Reese’s rise from 3-star in-state prospect to starting inside linebacker in 2026 is a potentially cool story that a few of his fall camp competitors would like to ruin. Specifically, there is junior Cayden Jones, who like Reese is a Class of 2024 guy, and there is also sophomore Luke Metz, a former 4-star prospect out of Georgia who was a top-30 linebacker in the Class of 2025. It’ll be a crucial battle to be that other starter alongside Woodson, because there are some enormous shoes that need to be filled.
3. The battle to be Bama’s lead RB after last year’s debacle
This one might not get the overall attention of the quarterback battle, but it’s right there in terms of overall importance to the Tide’s success in 2026. Yes, Alabama could theoretically still win games with a running back-by-committee formula, but most times when that scenario is forced to play out it means there was nobody good enough to carry the load in the first place.
Expecting whoever the starting quarterback ends up being to lead Alabama back to the College Football Playoff without an adequate running attack is simply tempting fate too many times. Not everybody can pull off what Ty Simpson did last fall, and while an offensive line with a slew of new names might ultimately be OK, mainstays like Kadyn Proctor and Parker Brailsford are gone to the NFL. All of this just puts that much more pressure on Ryan Grubb to make the running game work with the right guy as the engine.
Does Alabama even have that engine in the backfield in 2026? We’re going to find out in the next month, as the returning trio of Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley and AK Dear try to separate themselves by Week 1. If not, maybe 5-star stud EJ Crowell can pull a freshman breakout story similar to what Ryan Coleman-Williams did a few years ago? That would provide the most exciting solution possible, wouldn’t it? After last season’s ground game that never got off the ground, any kind of solution featuring anyone would be welcome.
4. The battle to be Bama’s starting field goal kicker
Conor Talty wasn’t particularly impressive last season, and Alabama’s incumbent kicker heard all about it from the home fans. There were some missed field goal attempts during the 2025 season, 7 of them to be exact in 23 attempts, including 2 within the absolutely must make 20-to-29-yard range. Kalen DeBoer threw his support around Talty amid the struggles, but it didn’t stop Alabama from hitting the portal and bringing in Marshall transfer Lorcan Quinn, a native of Northern Ireland with a serious leg.
All Quinn did in his first college football foray was lead the Sun Belt with 21 made field goals last fall, so this is hardly some cute offseason story of a Northern Irishman landing in far away Tuscaloosa after a stopover in the state of West Virginia. This is a serious competition that has extended into fall camp, and Quinn got the upper hand on Talty during the A-Day Game. Quinn also was 9 of 11 last season on field goal attempts from 40 yards out, including a pretty nifty 4 of 6 from 50-plus yards.
Talty has his hands full right now as fall camp opens. Quinn wants his job, and with the SEC going to a 9-game conference grind in 2026, points are going to be at a premium even more than usual. A strong kicker can provide DeBoer with a few less sleepless nights this fall, and so the kicker battle will rage on this month.
5. The battle for Kalen DeBoer to win over his harsh critics
This is the fight that DeBoer can only handle by himself, with his own internal strength and with his own merits. The season is still a month from starting and already the critics are coming hard after DeBoer. Headlining that list is longtime ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, who’s as dialed into the Alabama football program as anyone. Finebaum recently said he doesn’t believe DeBoer can win a national title at Alabama, and did you hear that DeBoer rant from fellow ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith?
Yes, this is a certifiable fall camp storyline because we’re talking about the head coach at Alabama being doubted and dissed by big-name analysts, a month before the season even kicks off and despite DeBoer leading the Tide to a Playoff berth last season. You think DeBoer isn’t well aware of all the noise as he tries to direct his team during a most crucial fall camp?
He is. This is precisely the flavor of slight insanity, of abnormality, that DeBoer signed up for when he decided to be the guy to replace Nick Saban. It’ll be a really long month, too, because DeBoer can’t start to win over those harsh critics until the games actually start.
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