Ryan Grubb updated Alabama’s quarterback competition Thursday during an interview with Tide 100.9’s “The Game with Ryan Fowler. The first-year offensive coordinator revealed that Ty Simpson still leads the quarterback room while stating that the battle will continue to wage on throughout fall camp.

Along with highlighting Simpson, Grubb provided a breakdown of fellow starting candidates Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. Here’s what he had to say about each of Alabama’s scholarship passers.

After naming Simpson the leader of Alabama’s quarterback battle coming out of spring camp in April, Grubb said the redshirt sophomore would still be the Tide’s starter if it had to suit up this weekend. During Thursday’s interview, Grubb explained his decision to reveal Simpson’s place in the pecking order.

“Ty took care of the football better,” Grubb said. “He operated better. I thought he improved for an older quarterback. I know he’s young to playing and starting experience. But as an older guy, I thought, especially toward the latter part of the spring, he started to show more of those characteristics.”

Grubb went into even more detail when breaking down Russell, who showed off his five-star talent several times during his debut camp with the team this spring. Russell signed with Alabama as the No. 1 overall player in this year’s class and was third in behind Simpson and Mack during spring viewing periods.

“Well, Keelon has elite vision,” Grubb said. “I'll start there, because I think it always starts there. When you go out on a field, and you’re at a seven-on-seven tournament, you're watching quarterbacks. You're looking for guys that, how fast are they finding a movement indicator, how fast they're seeing a coverage change, and how fast is the ball coming out of their hand— like, decision to ball out of their hand. How clean they can see everything, they can put it together. Keelon has a very innate ability to do that, and I would suspect he’s been able to do that for a long time and kind of built that craft as you started reading coverages more and things like that.

“And certainly, as he gets more comfortable in our offense, you can really see the plays when it's like, OK, he really understands this concept. This is a groove play for him, and he's making decisions really, really quickly, and he's making decisions quickly, and he's getting the ball to the right people. So I think as a young player, when you see that, you're like, ‘Wow, this guy's really got a chance.’ Then you pair together an elite skill set physically that he has, his God-given ability, and that’s where magic happens for guys. You put that with his disposition as a guy, very calm player, especially for a guy trying to pick up— I don't want to say complex, but I would say at least a system that they take a little bit for most guys to get down—and he is absolutely hunkered in, is not intimidated by the process at all. So it’s been really impressive to see.

“For him, it starts with the vision. Because there’s guys you can get to continue to improve and make them better, and they can understand things from a more strategic standpoint. But if they can’t see it… I’ve worked with guys that they can draw it up for you, they can talk the talk, and then they get out there, and you snap the leather to them, and they just can't see it. And it just doesn’t happen fast for them. And for Keelon, he's able to put those things together very quickly. He can drive the ball to all corners of the field. He's got a great, tight release—the ball can push through wind and all that. He's got a high spin rate, super efficient with his upper half, like he can get the ball out of his hand fast, make quick decisions. We’re still working on engaging his lower half to generate a little bit more power. He’s still got tons to work on, just like all these guys do. But yeah, really, really excited. I think sky's the limit for him.”

Finally, Grubb provided an update on Mack, who followed him and Kalen DeBoer from last offseaosn. Mack was second in Alabama’s quarterback rotation this spring but received several reps with the first-team offense.

“First of all, he's just a really big guy,” Grubb said. “You know, he’s 6’6.5” or right at 6-6 and 235 [pounds] and still can run and move around. If you're walking out on the field and watching all the guys throw, you’d be looking at Austin, and he’s probably your best pure thrower— just power and tempo of the football and where he can put it and touch. He is a pure thrower of the ball.

“He’s just like Keelon, still developing as a decision maker and still getting command of the offense. Certainly, the reps that he's been able to get this spring and even this summer already is really what he didn't have his first two years because he just wasn't in a position to be either the backup, or in a competitive role for the starting position. So now, all the coaching and reps that he's getting, I feel like he's grown every week. He’s more mobile than people think. He’s extremely intelligent. For Austin, he probably picks up stuff as fast, if not faster than anybody in the room. Very, very smart kid. Now it's just letting the game slow down for him, letting the easy plays look easy.

“Because when he’s on and pushing the ball where it’s supposed to go, I told him, and I mean it, he looks like if you went out to an NFL game and watched some guys throw before a game, you're like, that's what they look like. And that’s how Austin is. We’ve got to get the other part rectified as far as decision making, things like that, but he’s an incredibly talented kid.”