“The reality is, they’re coming off back-to-back four-loss years,” Klatt said. “The best part of their team was Ty Simpson — by a wide margin — and they’re losing him. I don’t love what’s going on down there. They got blown out by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. They got blown out by Indiana. Indiana did whatever they wanted to do. They ran the ball 50 times straight at Alabama. This is not the Alabama of two, three, four or five and certainly not 10 years ago. Alabama has been trending down and I think
that trend is going to continue.”
As Kalen DeBoer has gone 20-8 in his first two years at Alabama, Klatt has concerns for him at quarterback and across the roster.
“They have got to figure out their quarterback for next year. Is it going to be Austin Mack or Keelon Russell? They’ve got zero starts between them in an era where experience is everything you need at that position,” Klatt said. “When you look at Alabama’s portal, it was OK. I don’t think it was great. To me, it was a trajectory thing for Alabama. They’re on a trajectory that is down. I don’t think that’s going to stop. It has to level out at some point in order to go back up. But I don’t sense that moment of Alabama leveling out soon.”
Oooohhh Joel Klatt hates Alabama.
Seriously, I don’t totally disagree with him. There’s some really concerning things. And if neither Austin Mack or Keelon Russell are ready to step up to be a star QB? Yeah, it’s lights out. But that goes for pretty much any college football team when they are breaking in a new QB.
What I do think is worth mentioning, though, is that I don’t agree that Alabama is on a downward trajectory. I think they were a better team in 2025 than they were in 2024. They made it further in the postseason, had more total wins, and played much cleaner ball. They just also had to play an extended schedule against a couple of elite squads while also having a hurt QB. At worst, you could say they plateaued.
If you’re interested, here’s a 30-minute 1 on 1 interview with Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne.
One interesting part is when he starts talking about that they had already been studying Kalen DeBoer as a replacement for Nick Saban as early as when DeBoer first took the job at Washington.
And speaking of Byrne, he just made a couple of new hires for front office staff:
While I’m generally a fan of the idea of hiring an NFL scout – Are we sure the Cardinals are the right franchise to be pulling from?
Speculation season is really ramping up now, and some early smoke screens have the L.A. Rams interested in QB Ty Simpson.
While the Los Angeles Rams know that reigning MVP Matthew Stafford will be under center for them in 2026, the 38-year-old veteran is heading towards retirement.
Per ESPN, the Rams think Simpson is “their type” of QB and could be a perfect successor for Stafford. The plan would be to have Simpson sit behind the MVP for a season or two before taking the reins in Sean McVay’s complex, motion-heavy offense.
For Simpson, it might be the perfect spot for him. After being open about how he was hurt down the stretch, it’d allow the 23-year-old time to learn the Rams system and be taught by one of the best pocket passers of his generation.
There really couldn’t be a better spot for Ty. If the Rams could pick him up at the tail end of the 1st round, it would be awesome for him. He could sit behind Matt Stafford for a year, then get to throw to Puka Nacua and have Sean McVay call plays? It would be a dream. In the NFL, the situation makes the QB, and that’s about as good of a situation as you could ask for.
