Andy & Ari On3 - Alabama CLOBBERS Mississippi State | Is Crimson Tide QB Keelon Russell a REAL Heisman contender?

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

As the Saturday slate in college football is underway, the marquee matchup in the SEC was held in Starkville, Mississippi between the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs. As Kamario Taylor had two early turnovers, the Bulldogs did their best to claw back and make it a game. Watch here as Andy & Ari react to this pivotal week 5 game in the SEC.Our show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinSubscribe to On3!  ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati...Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy & Ari On3 on podcast!Spotify 🎧: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=d9016221aa2a4427Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow Andy & Ari On3 on X! https://x.com/AndyAriOn3Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow Ari Wasserman on Twitter: https://x.com/AriWassermanFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to this reaction edition of Bandhier on 3, presented by Polly Market. We just watched Alabama destroy Mississippi State 56 to 23. And I want to go right into the chat, Ari. V.I. Tux asks a question or makes a statement. Bama might be the best team in college football. Ari, I don't think that's that wild of a statement. Name one team that you think would definitively beat Bama if they played tomorrow. I cannot.

So that's the definition of national championship contender, right? Because there are going to be some teams that I could probably name that I think could score a lot of points on Bama. I'm not sure how many teams can hold Bama under 40, much less an actual low number. So Chris Lowe's at the game, and I'm very excited to see what he ends up writing. Obviously, I'm sure it'll be Keelan-centric because that's what we're going to talk about here. And he's the story of the game. I thought he was tremendous. But outside of just Keelan,

didn't that kind of feel like a vintage Kalin DeBoer, like Washington team a little bit? They've got really good dynamic receivers that are getting open. Their offense is really fun. Ryan Coleman Williams is starting to look like his freshman self. They just seem very comfortable with what they're doing. That's the thing that I think stands out the most to me. And we know a lot about, you know,

Keel and Russell and how good he's going to be and how much he's, he's, how much of a star he's going to be. But the thing that stands out to me the most, Andy, about watching Alabama play for the first month is that every single week, they seem to get more and more confident. He seems to be settling in. And like when I was watching the game today, he doesn't play anymore like a guy who's just learning the ropes.

He plays like he's been the starter now for two years. And it's just absolutely sensational. So we talked in the offseason about the quarterback battle. And I think that there's probably, a pretty good chance that Austin Mac is going to get a bag in the offseason to go start somewhere and he might be a very good player. But we talked about what these tools, if they click, due to the ceiling of your team, these tools have clicked. The ceiling of their team is completely different to me now. The ceiling of their team is national championship. And that's what we said.

We said if he's the right guy, the ceiling becomes national championship. He's absolutely the right guy. And what you said about him looking like he's had this job for two years. It shows up today. because there's nobody on earth who'd say Camario Taylor is a bad quarterback. Camario Taylor's going to be one of the best quarterbacks in college football. He's probably going to wind up being a high NFL draft pick. Like, Camaro Taylor is really good. But he looked like a guy making his first start against a legit playoff type opponent. You know, he tries to fake it, he fumbles, he throws a pick six early,

they go out on a 14-0-0-0. They had four turnovers in the first half, right? They had a disastrous first half, and they were still kind of in the game at halftime, which is a test of it to him. But yes. But Keel and Russell, every time they got the ball,

whether they needed, whether they got a short field because the defense got the ball for him, or whether they had a longer way to go because it was more conventional way of getting a ball. It didn't matter. There was nothing they could do to stop him. Nothing.

Dude, I just, there were even four-yard losses, where he would escape the pocket dramatically. And I was like, wow, that was impressive. Like, it wasn't even just the big throws. But the thing that is best about him, Andy, is a lot of people get fixated on running ability, right? And obviously, he's very gifted.

I saw Chris Finini tweeted this, and I was actually thinking it before he tweeted it, but I'm giving him credit. Like, when he runs, he has this glide that you would see from like a Terrell-Pryorvince Young type person who is just like, looks like they're not running that fast, but they're actually covering a tremendous amount of ground. But the thing that blows me of the way the most about him, man,

is the ball placement on some of these throws, dude. Yes. Like, that's it. That's the thing, right? Is that the takeaway here? Like, he has got an amazing arm. Yes. No, he's throwing into tight windows.

There was one ball he threw in the first half where he's getting crushed. Yeah. And he throws it only where the receiver can catch it. The receiver has to dive to catch it. But he basically throws the receiver open because the receiver was actually covered really well. And he throws a great back shoulder. Yeah. It was a great back shoulder.

There was another play, and I was thinking back to when we had Brooks Austin on, and we were talking about Keelan's high school film. And Brooks pointed out that Keelan did something that high school quarterbacks rarely do, especially when they're really good athletes, is that every time there's pressure, he would climb the pocket. This is a situation where Keelan climbed the pocket. There was room to run. He probably could have gained four or five yards,

but he kept his eyes downfield and found an easy, you know, wide open target, 25 yards down the field. Like that that's the sort of stuff that he does routinely that it's not like he's developing into that. He came in immediately doing that and he's just going to get better.

Do you want to do the word? The H word? Yeah. Do you want to do it? You do it. Yeah. We said I said this before the game. I was like, we're going to see Heisman moment from somebody today. I don't know if we saw a Heisman moment from Keel on

Kiela Russell. I think we saw a whole game of Heisman highlights. Like that he's a guy that is going to be in the race for that for that award. Like it was interesting in the first half because you were watching, I had the multiple boxes going and Keel and Russell's making great throws. You've got CJ Carr at Notre Dame throwing some dots in the rain at North Carolina. But like if you were going to pick between the two of those guys, right now, you'd probably take Heel and Russell because it feels like he's just more complete.

Okay, I'm excited. I get excited and I say crazy things. Yeah. I'm going to say some crazy stuff that I actually believe. Go. One, I don't think that there's a single quarterback in college football would take over him right now. Crazy? Okay.

Here's another one. Oh, it's not crazy. Okay, well, here's one that's even crazy. No, it's not crazy. Ty Simpson was a first round pick. They have upgraded a quarterback this year. Not crazy. Okay, so I'm normal.

I'm a normal. I don't know what that feels like to be normal. No, I think there were going to be plenty of people who argue with you on the point of there's not a guy you would take over him. I think there are people who would take CJ Carr. There might be some people who take Julian Say and, you know, there are other quarterbacks that people might take. But you are well within your right to say that. I'm inclined to agree with you. Like, I'm inclined to agree that he's the one I, maybe Trinidad Shamillus.

Trinidad Shameless might be the only other one because I've seen him do this over and over again, and I've seen him do it in the highest leverage of spots. But if Keel and Russell keeps playing, I'll concede Trinidad. But if Keel and Russell keeps playing like this, Ari, I might take Keel and Russell. Because the thing Keel and Russell is doing so far, now that may change, is he's not making a lot of mistakes. No, and he made a bunch in his first startup, I remember, and he was like really cleaning up.

He threw a pick six against Kentucky, right? Yeah, that was the first try of the game. Yeah, they traded pick sixes. But he's been clean pretty much ever since. And I just, I think that's the other part of it is I feel very confident when he's back there that he's not going to do something that makes you go, what in the world you do? Like, we just got done watching.

Minnesota, Michigan, where Drake Lindsay had a couple of throws that were like, why are you doing that? You're going to give the game away. And then Bryce Underwood said, hold my beer, and gave the game away. Yeah. For sure. I just like, I don't have a negative thing to say about the guy. I wish I could be a negative Nancy ever now on this.

But I can't. No, it's okay. He hasn't given you a reason to. Yeah. It's okay when somebody's awesome to just say they're awesome. And I think that's the deal here. And I realize this is the internet. So there would be some people who are like,

if you think he's awesome, it means you think everybody else stinks. Isn't CJ Car good? No, CJ Car is great. But this guy is special, man. He's special. And he's turned Bama into a scary, scary team and not in the way that necessarily

that the Nix Sabin teams were scary. This is different. But I will also. say Alabama's defense, four games in row with pick six is pretty awesome too. You'll take that. Yeah. I mean, Dijon Lee was a highly

regarded player coming out of high school, so you're starting to see the fruits of that labor. Because didn't he struggle a little bit coming into the game, too? He had a pretty rough go of it. Well, he muffed a punt in this game, too. Yeah, he did. But he's a sensational player. Yeah, so, I mean, this feels like it's all coming together. Now,

here's where it's fun. Alabama hosts Georgia next week. We will see. We will know. We will get answers. Because Alabama goes, Georgia and Tuscaloosa, Tennessee and Knoxville, two weeks in a row. We will have some answers. We will know some things.

But right now, Ari, I got to say, they look like one of the best teams in country. No complaints, no arguments here. Obviously, that's the joy of college football. it's like you get to watch it. And then guess what? Next week there's more context waiting around the corner. But also this entire afternoon, just so you know, Ohio State, Strip Sack, Hank Brown on the second play of the game and then scored a touchdown walking in like three plays later.

So we're off to the races in Iowa. So my Iowa to cover pick is looking great. Yeah. I mean, it's early, but you might be in a load of shit here. I don't know. That's all right. Iowa turning it over and then definitely scored and there was not even a person within five feet of him. Ari, I'm three and one against the spread so far this week.

I can live with it. You can wear one. I can absorb it. Yeah. We'll talk to you soon.