Russell makes first career start as Alabama opens vs East Carolina
Keelon Russell gets his first career start today against a retooled East Carolina team, with Kalen DeBoer asking for a clean game rather than a perfect one.
DeBoer wants clean, not perfect, from Russell's first start
Keelon Russell has thrown 15 college passes, all of them in mop-up duty as a true freshman last year, when he went 11 of 15 for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns in two games. This morning against East Carolina, the redshirt freshman gets his first real start, having beaten out redshirt junior Austin Mack for the job over the summer. Alabama's week 1 depth chart, released Friday, lists Mack and true freshman Jett Thomalla behind him, per TDAlabamaMag.
The story everyone in the building keeps repeating is a seafood dinner. Russell took the offensive line room out over the weekend and the oyster count got away from them fast, which DeBoer framed as exactly what he wants from the position: "the higher the leadership role, the more you are a servant to those around you and those you need. The quarterback really needs everyone." Asked what's different about Russell heading into his first start, DeBoer pointed to the calendar rather than the arm: "he knows that in Year 2" and is "pretty comfortable with a lot of guys we have returning" — though he added the next test is "the environments, the defenses that he's gonna face," per SI's rundown of his East Carolina week press conference.
DeBoer's actual bar for today is lower than perfection. "That's where it's nice that he's been here for a year... I think that will help out with him playing a clean game. Just play within himself. He's got the ability," he said. Not trying to do too much, in other words, is the whole assignment for a quarterback who's never taken a real-game snap under center.
Last time out: a three-game skid closed the book on last season
Alabama finished last season the hard way. After running away from Eastern Illinois 56-0 and grinding out a 27-20 win at Auburn, the Tide lost at home to Georgia 7-28, beat Oklahoma 34-24 on the road, and then were run off the field by Indiana 3-38 on January 1 to close out the year. A home loss to a rival contender sandwiched around a 35-point playoff exit is the kind of finish that changes how a program gets talked about heading into a new season.
It's why Alabama opens 2026 ranked 13th in the AP poll — outside the preseason top 10 for the first time since 2008, the last time the Tide started outside the top 10, per Brett McMurphy — and the fifth straight season Alabama has finished ranked lower than it started, per CFBHome. Nothing about last year's finish argues against the pattern continuing. What's different walking into September is a new quarterback nobody outside the building has actually watched play a real game yet.
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Covers' injury tracker lists three Tide players as Questionable heading into East Carolina: receiver N. Rogers, working through a leg injury first reported in late August; running back A. Dear, dealing with a lower-leg issue since mid-August; and tight end D. Lewis Jr., fighting a foot injury dating back even earlier in camp. None of the three is ruled out and none of the language is confirmed — Covers' own tags on all three are hedges, not diagnoses.
The week 1 depth chart offers a small clue on one of them: it lists Daniel Hill as the lead back with Trae'shawn Brown behind him, and doesn't feature Dear in that top pairing, per TDAlabamaMag. DeBoer has otherwise sounded unbothered by the list, saying publicly this week that he doesn't expect the Tide's banged-up group to miss much more than roughly the first month of the season — a notably optimistic line for a coach carrying three Questionable tags into his opener. Questionable is still a real doubt, not a placeholder for out, and it's worth checking the pregame inactives before kickoff.
A rebuilt East Carolina crashes into a 28.5-point line
East Carolina isn't the same team that went 9-9 last season, its first 9-win year since joining the American Conference in 2014. Only one starter is back on an offense that averaged 32.7 points and 449 yards, coordinator John David Baker is out in favor of North Texas import Jordan Davis, and at least eight new starters are arriving through the transfer portal, according to Yahoo Sports' Week 1 opponent preview. The quarterback job belongs to Mitch Griffis, a seventh-year senior nearing 25 who spent last season as Texas Tech's backup — not exactly the profile of a team trying to steal a game in Tuscaloosa.
The number reflects that gap: the line opened with Alabama favored by 28.5, and the total opened at 54.5, a middling number for a game this lopsided on paper. Russell doesn't need to be perfect against a Pirates team replacing this much of its offense — he needs to be clean, and this is about as soft a landing spot as a first career start gets.