Alabama star wide receiver Ryan Williams provided Keelon Russell with a warm welcome to Tuscaloosa after the 5-star quarterback recruit officially committed to the Crimson Tide.
On Wednesday, Russell reaffirmed his decision to flip from SMU to Alabama at his signing day ceremony, which he broadcast on Instagram Live. Upon putting pen to paper on the deal, On3s No. 2 ranked signal-caller in the 2025 recruiting class was joined by his future teammate, Williams.
It likely wont be long before Russell and Williams grace the field together, with Alabama starting quarterback Jalen Milroe expected to enter his name in the 2025 NFL Draft. The duos chemistry online was hard to miss, as the pair of former high-end 5-star prospects shared their hopes for next season.
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The plan is, get in there, win a national championship, Russell told Williams during the stream. Its all overstood, everythings already overstood. We going there to take over business and we gonna do something crazy next year.
Entering his senior year, Russell already completed 359-of-516 passes for 5,860 yards, 60 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, per 247Sports. The Duncanville High School product additionally excelled on the ground, rushing 110 times for 564 yards and nine scores en route to becoming a two-time 6A Division I UIL state champion in 2022 and 2023.
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer heaped praise on Russell asserting that the Elite 11 quarterback competition MVP made a strong impression both in person and on tape.
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There is a swagger about him, there is a confidence about him, DeBoer said of Russell. Hes helped become a major part of bringing and keeping this class together which is what youd want from any leader, but especially your quarterback.
It is really cool when you think about the recruiting process with him, he added. I continue to think of it as there are eyes that we have, feelings that we have when we watched the film that are one thing when it jumps out at you, but I think there are other details we saw from the film that we saw in person that were verified when the coaching staff went out in the spring to see him.
It was like, Wow, this guy is what we think and these little nuances that we think are special are definitely special. You can see as the summer went along that everyone else started to see it as well. Now, you see the production this fall is on another level.
As for why Russell opted to choose Alabama over SMU, the 17-year-old expressed a desire to learn and develop under DeBoer. Trust and development was the biggest part, he told ClutchPoints. I was committed to SMU. They had the trust. They had the development part but when you get a call from Alabama, thats the goal for a football player. You get a call from Alabama, youre going to be first round, youre gonna be a draft pick.
That development and getting me to where I want to be was probably the biggest thing [in committing to Alabama]. Going into these next few years I want to progress in the things that will make me into an NFL superstar one day. Im looking long-term, not really short-term. Yeah, its going to be fun playing for three, four years at Bama but Im looking to play infinity years in the NFL.
