Alabama football quarterback Keelon Russell has been as good as advertised through the first four games of 2026.
The former five-star recruit in the class of 2025, who beat Austin Mack for the starting job in fall camp, enters October with some impressive numbers for a 19-year-old quarterback in his first month of college football.
Russell's 1,129 passing yards currently rank 19th among all FBS quarterbacks, and he's coming off his two best performances to date. In the Crimson Tide's 50-36 win over Florida State in Week 3, Russell connected on 23 of his 30 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns. He also added an electric 57-yard touchdown run.
In the Tide's 49-18 blowout of South Carolina in Week 4 at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Russell completed
all but six passes and had four touchdown tosses before halftime. He finished 21 of 27 for 365 yards, plus a 9-yard score on a quarterback run with just over two minutes remaining.
Russell has the Crimson Tide 4-0 and ranked No. 7 in this week's US LBM Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25 heading into Saturday's showdown at No. 16 Mississippi State (4-0), led by another rising star at quarterback.
On Wednesday, ESPN college football analyst Bill Connelly took a look at all 68 Power Four quarterbacks through the first month of the season and ranked them by their performances to date.
Russell was ranked No. 7 on ESPN's list, one spot below Jayden Maiava of Southern California and two spots below Mississippi State's Kamario Taylor. Maiava leads all FBS teams with 1,499 passing yards, though he has the benefit of playing in five games to Russell's four.
Among SEC quarterbacks, Russell ranks third on ESPN's list behind Taylor at No. 5 and Ole Miss' Trinidad Chambliss at No. 4. Darian Mensah of the Miami Hurricanes topped the rankings.
Connelly said of Russell:
"With his rate of improvement, he might rank in the top three or four when I redo this list in a couple more weeks. Russell has been every bit as good as Alabama needed him to be this season, combining effortless deep passing with solid contributions in the running game. And after slow starts against Kentucky and Florida State, he hit the gas from his very first throw against South Carolina (a 75-yard TD). He holds onto the ball a little too long and sometimes gets into trouble because of it, but with the way he's learning and growing, he might have that solved by November."
Taylor, who has thrown for 1,192 yards in four games and ranks 10th in FBS in passing, drew similarly high praise from Connelly heading into Week 5's showdown between the Tide and Bulldogs in Starkville.
"Maybe the most exciting thing about Taylor is that he's still clearly learning on the job. Against both South Carolina and Missouri in the past two games, the Bulldogs' offense fell into a prolonged funk that put them in danger. But he was so good the rest of the way that MSU still scored over 30 points and won. He takes a few too many sacks, but a 69% completion rate, 9.1 yards per dropback and a 14-to-2 TD-to-INT rate -- combined with selective but devastating running -- is pretty ridiculous for a first-year starter. He's your September Heisman winner, and the fact that he appears to be cool as hell only adds to the aura."
Alabama-Mississippi State is set for an 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville. The game will be televised on ABC.
ESPN predicts the winner of Alabama football vs. Mississippi State
— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) September 30, 2026
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Alabama football schedule 2026
All times Central.
- Sept. 5: vs. East Carolina Pirates (W, 48-10)
- Sept. 12: at Kentucky Wildcats (W, 45-17)
- Sept. 19: vs. Florida State Seminoles (W, 50-36)
- Sept. 26: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks (W, 49-18)
- Oct. 3: at Mississippi State Bulldogs, 11 a.m., ABC
- Oct. 10: vs. Georgia Bulldogs, 6:30 p.m., ABC
- Oct. 17: at Tennessee Volunteers, TBA
- Oct. 24: vs. Texas A&M Aggies, TBA
- Nov. 7: at LSU Tigers, TBA
- Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt Commodores, TBA
- Nov. 21: vs. Chattanooga Mocs, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
- Nov. 28: vs. Auburn Tigers, TBA
Record: 4-0 overall, 2-0 SEC.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: ESPN names Alabama football's Keelon Russell top 10 Power Four QB
