How the 2026 Rose Bowl made Alabama football quarterback Austin Mack

Austin Mack’s Rose Bowl story is well known. The Alabama football quarterback nearly predicted it himself. 

In the middle of a hotel conference room days before the 2026 Rose Bowl, Mack, faced with countless questions on his Alabama future with an NCAA transfer portal window looming, remained assured. Everybody has their own journey, he said. He’ll be ready when his time comes, he said. 

“I’m one play from playing in the Rose Bowl vs. Indiana,” Mack said in December. “That’s kind of where my mind’s at.” 

Crimson Tide fans know the rest of the tale: Ty Simpson suffers an injury in the second quarter against Indiana, Mack enters as Alabama’s quarterback and leads Alabama to its only scoring drive of the day. 

Nothing really changed. Indiana, the eventual College Football Playoff national champion, pounded Alabama 38-3, ending the Crimson Tide’s season. 

But this story is not about a scoreboard. To those closest to Mack, it represented an opportunity, one he’d been waiting for, one that continues to be talked about as the turning point of a career defined by patience. 

The Rose Bowl wasn’t perfect for Mack. But it was a chance. And that’s all that Mack and those close to him were waiting for. 

‘He’s got this’

When Aidan Mack tells his version of the Rose Bowl story, he always starts with a caveat: he didn’t know what was happening. 

Aidan, sitting with his parents Brad and Lisa Mack, was in the stands in Pasadena. There was no commentary, no context. Just actions and questions. The Macks didn’t know Simpson cracked a rib in the second quarter, nor did they know why Austin spoke with a member of the training staff as he walked off the field for halftime. 

Austin Mack warmed up with Simpson heading into the second half, and continued to throw through a three-and-out to open the third quarter: the final plays of Simpson’s Alabama career. 

Then Austin took the field. And immediate support fell on the Macks. 

Julie Simpson, Ty’s mother, turned to Lisa, connected eyes and said, mother to mother, “He’s got this.” All Aidan could do was turn to his father, Brad, and say, “Here we go.” 

“As a parent, you’re nervewracked,” Brad Mack said. “But watching him go out and operate, your heart just fills. It’s like, yes, he’s worked every day of his life for this moment right here.”

Brad, Lisa and Aidan Mack saw the quarterback they’ve always seen in Austin, one who came to life, one who confidently implored his offensive linemen not to look at the scoreboard and to simply play. 

“It was a chance for him to go out and do what he does and be the guy,” Brad Mack said.

Austin showed athleticism. Austin showed maturity. Austin made throws. Austin made mistakes. 

After years of waiting, that’s all Lisa Mack needed to see. 

“That moment, I knew he could do the job,” she said.

‘It was incredibly rewarding for me’

Paul Doherty knows what Mack the starting quarterback looks like. 

After two seasons of waiting, Mack had one season as Doherty’s quarterback at Folsom High School. But when Mack entered the Rose Bowl, production was not on Doherty’s mind.

Doherty was getting away from football, walking through an airport terminal after a quick San Diego vacation with his 8- and 10-year-old sons. One comment stopped Doherty dead in his tracks. 

“Papa, Austin’s in the game.” 

Suddenly nothing else mattered. Doherty found the nearest TV and watched. 

Doherty knew what the moment meant. Mack dominated practice fields at Folsom, and whether he faced second-team reps or was leading the Bulldogs to a NorCal Championship against De La Salle, Mack never changed. 

To Doherty’s two sons, Mack was an idol. As both sat in Doherty’s quarterback room during position meetings, they watched Mack take praise and criticism in stride. They watched Mack become a professional, soaking in lessons they may not realize until they are much older. 

The process is what Doherty thought about while watching Mack at the Rose Bowl throwing completion after completion. 

“It was incredibly rewarding for me,” Doherty said. 

‘He is definitely capable’

Austin Mack’s Rose Bowl was something Kalen DeBoer had been waiting for, too. 

Mack was in DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s quarterback room at Washington weeks after Mack’s 17th birthday. Mack showed his unwavering trust in DeBoer by following him and his staff to Alabama and remaining in his quarterback room despite hardly any significant reps through three seasons. 

Mack is bought into the big picture. But DeBoer is also bought in. He saw, at the Rose Bowl, firsthand what Mack had developed into.

The energy came immediately, DeBoer remembers. Mack’s confidence and ability to execute quickly followed. There was no easing in, DeBoer said. Mack provided the spark, an inkling of light for the Crimson Tide to follow in the midst of extreme darkness. 

“There’s an energy and a vibe you have about you, and he’s got that,” DeBoer told The Tuscaloosa News. “He’s a great teammate. I mean, a phenomenal teammate, and that’s not just what he wants to be. He’s going to be that naturally because that’s just who he is. 

“He wants to be a starting quarterback. He wants to be the guy leading a team to a championship. He is definitely capable of that.” 

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter or Instagram @colingaytnews.