If anything is certain when it comes to Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama Crimson Tide, it’s that the quarterback position will be brimming with talent, and the starter will have beaten out a room that boasts starters on just about any other college team.

That is no different this year, where the Crimson Tide has Keelon Russell and Austin Mack firmly entrenched in a battle that could bleed all the way into the regular season. But if you ask Rueben Foster who should be the starter, his mind is already made up.

Rueben Foster wants Keelon Russell to start at Alabama

“I got to go with No. 12,” Foster told TD Alabama. “The way he was throwing that thing, the way it was just flickering out of there, it was just a thing of beauty. Don’t get me wrong, No. 10 [Austin Mack] is fire, but No. 12’s energy caught my eye.”

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I must say that while Kalen DeBoer has noted that the competition is still wide open and that Austin Mack’s lack of reps in the spring game was due to his being banged up, whether it’s the evidence on your screen, current players like Ryan Williams, or former players like Foster, it just seems that everyone is all in on Russell, but this race is far from over.

Can Austin Mack still win the job?

I can only imagine what would happen if, after all the hype in the spring and early summer, Austin Mack emerges as the best of the bunch and is named a starter ahead of Alabama’s regular-season debut against East Carolina.

But that’s what makes fall camp so special, and more importantly, that is why Kalen DeBoer was hired to be the head coach. There are plenty of programs already naming their starter this week.

DeBoer wants to see it through, and that tells me that he knows Mack has more to show, more to offer. But will it be enough to surpass Russell, who, by all accounts, has the early lead? Time will tell.