TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Without a scrimmage to worry about, there wasn’t a distraction to take eyes away from Alabama’s biggest position battle. Saturday’s open A-Day practice featured several new faces and a first public look at this season’s Crimson Tide team.

Don’t worry, Tide Illustrated will have all of that covered. However, this space is designated solely for Alabama’s quarterback battle.

Redshirt junior Ty Simpson, redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell were all in action on Saturday, as the Tide practiced for roughly an hour and a half inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.

While the Tide didn’t hold a proper scrimmage, the quarterbacks did throw against defenders in 11-on-11, seven-on-seven and one-on-one situations.

“I think all three are doing a really good job leading and its harder to lead when you’re not named the starter… they’re great guys,” Kalen DeBoer told Crimson Tide Sports Network during the practice. “They’re extremely competitive. It’s a healthy competition they have and they do a good job leading and because they’re good people away from the competition, everyone is good with it, including their peers the other quarterbacks.

“So I appreciate what they’re doing. They hold themselves and each other accountable in that room. They also are doing the same for the rest of the team and the team respects them for it because these guys are all about — yeah they’ll take to get us out there to win football games from the quarterback spot, but they also love and appreciate and have a respect for those guys that are putting in the work and all of those guys appreciate that.”

Here are notes on each of Alabama’s quarterbacks from the practice.