Before Ryan Grubb extended an offer to 2026 Cincinnati quarterback Matt Ponatoski, the Alabama football offensive coordinator got the big question out of the way.
Ponatoski, the incoming senior quarterback at Archbishop Moeller High School, is also a renowned baseball recruit, one who committed to Missouri as an eighth grader, who is the No. 16 high school baseball prospect nationally per Baseball America and one who plans to play both football and baseball for as long as he can.
And if the uncommitted four-star quarterback were to choose Alabama, Ponatoski said, Grubb said that plan would become a reality.
“(Grubb) was like, ‘You can come here and play both at Alabama,’” Ponatoski said, securing a Crimson Tide offer after Alabama quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan watched him throw in-person.
Alabama is looking for a 2026 quarterback, one to add to a roster that could include each of the three scholarship quarterbacks the Crimson Tide has on its 2025 roster: Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. Ponatoski is one of two recent 2026 quarterback offers, along with Nebraska four-star and Iowa State commit Jett Thomalla.
Even with a full room, Ponatoski, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound athlete listed as the No. 22 quarterback in the 2026 class per 247Sports’ composite rankings, realizes that playing time at a place like Alabama carries weight, no matter how long it may be for.
“You only need one year at Alabama,” Ponatoski said. “And (if) you play good, you’re in the NFL.”
That’s the path Moeller football coach Bert Bathiany sees for Ponatoski, someone he calls “a once-in-a-lifetime player,” who has “every single passing record known to man” for the Crusaders including career passing yards and career touchdown passes with one season left to play.
“He has the best arm talent I have ever seen,” Bathiany said. “He can make every single throw out on the football field. And we do things with him at the high school level that he shouldn’t be able to do. And I don’t know how many times me and our coaches just kind of look at each other after a throw he makes in awe, like ‘Are you kidding me? This kid is 17 years old and he’s making throws like that?’”
Ponatoski was a late bloomer on the football recruiting circuit, a prospect many programs questioned about his primary sport being baseball or football. But Bathiany said Ponatoski is “committed to play both in college.”
“That’s his mindset,” Bathiany said. “He hasn’t given up on that dream.”
Baseball has helped make Ponatoski the quarterback that caught the Crimson Tide’s eye, one who is competitive, steady and has a “great demeanor” in taking command of an offense he has run since the tail end of his freshman season, Bathiany said.
Through being a heralded shortstop and pitcher on the baseball diamond, Ponatoski said, the Moeller quarterback knows how to be calm on a big stage and knows how important preparation is to “just go do my thing and let the game come to me.”
As Ponatoski’s senior football season looms, his potential college football stage is getting bigger and bigger, adding offers from programs like Texas A&M, Arkansas, Oregon and Alabama after he led Moeller to the OHSAA Division 1 state championship game as a junior.
“Not everything comes when you want it to,” Ponatoski said. “And honestly, waiting a little longer, it makes it feel better. It makes it feel you earned it a little more.”
Alabama has the right to be patient with a prospect like Ponatoski, Bathiany said, to make sure that a quarterback checks every box before an offer is extended. And even with the state of the Crimson Tide’s quarterback room, it’s a situation the Moeller coach thinks his quarterback would thrive in.
“I mean, he wants to play for the best, and that’s his mindset,” Bathiany said. “So wherever he goes, he’s going to step foot and put forth his best foot forward. He’s going to give really good effort and is going to compete with whoever he’s up against.”
Ponatoski admits the Alabama offer is an intriguing one. His advisor, he said, has already been in contact with the Crimson Tide baseball program to gauge potential interest and how the balance would work.
Those conversations, Ponatoski said, are continuing, one expected to lead to an Alabama visit in the coming weeks as the Moeller quarterback aims to build relationships with both the football and baseball programs, to see where he would fit.
“It’s Alabama,” Ponatoski said. “You have to go at least and see what it’s about.”
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.
