Hello and Roll Tide!

The start of the 2026 season is upon us! A few teams kicked off this past weekend during week 0 and now it’s Alabama’s turn to start the season. On Saturday September 5th, Alabama will take on the Eastern Carolina University (ECU) Pirates. Head coach Kalen DeBoer enters his third season at Alabama and looks to follow up a successful season with something special. Last season Alabama competed for the SEC Championship and won a playoff game. This year they hope to be a serious contender for the National Championship. Below are season storylines and an ECU preview. Let’s go!

2026 Alabama Crimson Tide Storylines:

Will Alabama return to national contention? - To other programs, asking this question after winning the regular season and winning a playoff game would be crazy, but Alabama isn’t just any other program. Year after year, Nick Saban’s Alabama team had the talent to win a national title. The 2025 season was an improvement from DeBoer’s first season, but Alabama never felt like a serious threat to win it all. Will year 3 under DeBoer be the year that Alabama breaks through?

Welcome to the Spotlight, Keelon Russell – For the second consecutive year, Alabama has a first-year starter at quarterback. Sophomore Keelon Russell beat out 4th year Austin Mack for the starting job during fall camp. Keelon’s recruiting profile suggests that he will be productive at D1, but it may take time for the young gunslinger to adjust to the SEC. Luckily, Alabama has a favorable schedule to start the season (by SEC standards) as they play ECU, Kentucky, and Florida State to start the season. Keelon should be able to experience some hiccups in these matchups without giving the game away. The question will be, does he get up to speed fast enough to handle the stretch of Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and LSU weeks 6-10? Keelon is a very exciting prospect and very well could live up to the hype. He will be a huge factor in deciding Alabama’s success this year.

Offensive Line Musical Chairs – Alabama returns only 1 starter from the offensive line last year, and only one other who played any snaps with the first team. To tackle this, Alabama brought in 7 transfers (1 JUCO) to compete for the starting jobs. Sophomore Jackson Lloyd has already been named the starter at left tackle; at left guard Mal Waldrep and Will Sanders are competing; Transfer Racin Delgatty is expected to start at Center; Michael Carroll will play right guard; Transfers Jayvin James and Nick Brooks are competing at right tackle, Jayvis is pulling away. With all of these new faces, how effective will the line be? Will the competition lead into the season like last year? Alabama’s run game was a non-factor a season ago, forcing Ty Simpson to shoulder the entire load. Keelon being a new starter would benefit from a ground game and protection. Hopefully Grubb will find the right combination to make Alabama’s offense click.

The Steel Curtain – Alabama’s defense looks to be as tough as the Steel going into the 2026 season. The defensive line turned over, but Bama brought in some big transfers to fill the gaps. Terrance Green, transfer from Oregon, is listed at 6’5 313lbs and will replace Tim Keenan’s production from a season ago. Alongside him is sophomore London Simmons, 6’3 300lbs, who broke out a season ago. Transfer Devan Thompkins will play the bandit, standing at 6’5 303lbs. These monsters will plug the gaps while the linebacker fill behind them. Caleb Woodson started for Virginia Tech the last 2 seasons and will lead Alabama’s linebacker group. Alongside him is sophomore Luke Metz and Junior QB Reese. While there are question marks at middle linebacker, Yhonzae Pierre will be wreaking havoc on opposing quarterbacks from the WOLF position. Behind them is likely the best secondary in the country. Alabama appears to have a National Championship level defense on paper, but will they live up to the high expectations?

Week 1 Preview: Eastern Carolina University Pirates

Eastern Carolina is led by 3rd year head coach Blake Harrell. This is his first head coaching opportunity after serving as the Defensive coordinator at Lenoir–Rhyne (2007-2013), The Citadel (2014-2018), Kennesaw State (2019), and ECU (2020-2024). Harrell faced Alabama in 2018 when The Citadel traveled to Tuscaloosa, where he held the Tide to only 10 points in the first half. Harrell took over as the interim coach in 2024, and was named permanent coach after starting 4-0. He is 14-5 as the ECU head coach and an impressive 2-0 in bowl games. ECU is coming off of a 9-4 season in 2025, where they beat Pitt 23-17 in the Military Bowl. ECU’s offense ranked 24th inthe country in points per game (32.7) and 19th in yards per game (449.0). They were led by QB Katin Houser who transferredto Illinois after a successful 3,300 yard/ 19TD season. Replacing him is journeyman Mitch Griffis. Griffis started hiscollege career in 2020 with Wake Forest as a 3-star QB. After 4 years, he transferred to Marshall but decided not to playfootball in 2024. Last season Griffis was the backup at Texas Tech and transferred to ECU to start during his finalseason. Their top receiver threat in 2025, Anthony Smith, was drafted in the 7th round by the Dallas Cowboys. Returning5th year Brock Spalding and transfers Landon Sides and Ray Ray Joseph project to be Griffis’ top targets. North Texastransfer Ashton Gray will compete with Marshall transfer Michael Allen for carries at running back. Blake Harrell’s defensive background unsurprisingly led to an effective 2025 campaign. ECU was 25th in points allowed pergame (20.1). They return 6th year senior Jasiyah Robinson on the defensive line who recorded 5 sacks a season ago.Quarterbacking the defense is returning starter DJ Johnson Jr. at middle linebacker. He recorded 29 tackles a season ago.Returning in the secondary is Kevon Merrell who started 13 games in 2025. With all of this returning talent, Harrellshould have another stout defensive front in 2026. ECU will be able to push Alabama’s new offensive line, providingexperience before Bama’s first SEC game in week 2.

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ROLL TIDE! -Jake