Wait was worth it for Alabama's Ty Simpson, who's ready to 'roll' in first career SEC road start

The wait was longer than Ty Simpson would have preferred.

He earned his bachelor’s degree before he got his first start, something that happens in today’s world of college football about as often as schools lower ticket prices in premium seating areas.

Simpson, a fourth-year junior, endured a head coaching change, four different offensive coordinators, multiple quarterback battles, a disappointing loss in his first game as a starter and the kind of intense scrutiny that comes with the territory when you’re the starting quarterback at Alabama.

“It was hard. I mean, there were some days where I was like, ‘Is it time to move on, or is this a sign?’” Simpson told On3. “But at the end of the day, it always came back to, ‘No, I came to Alabama for a reason.’ That’s what was best for me when I came here out of high school, and at the end of the day, the best thing for me was staying here. I wasn’t going to run away.

“And I wouldn’t trade my journey for anything.”

It’s a journey that takes on even more meaning Saturday night when Alabama looks to redeem itself from an ugly season-opening loss to Florida State against Georgia in Sanford Stadium, where the Bulldogs have won 33 straight games, the longest active home winning streak in college football.

“This is why you come to Alabama, to play in these games,” Simpson said. “I grew up watching these games.”

He’s also grown up considerably in his three games as Alabama’s starter, from the 31-17 loss at Florida State when the mood in Tuscaloosa was borderline apocalyptic to the last two games in which the Crimson Tide have won by a combined 111-14 margin over ULM and Wisconsin with Simpson throwing more touchdown passes (seven) than he has incompletions (five).

“I feel more comfortable in the position that I’m in now compared to the first game,” Simpson said. “We were just trying to be too perfect, and then I was trying to do too much, honestly. That’s why I had to self-reflect and just ask myself, ‘How can I make the game simpler and how can I not make it bigger than what it is?’ It’s a one-play-at-a-time mentality, and I think that’s what we’ve done these last two games, create our own momentum.

“I’ve got really good guys surrounding me, and my job is getting them the football in a position where they can make plays.”

While the angst surrounding the entire Alabama program following the FSU loss was both loud and emotional, Simpson turned inward. The son of a football coach, UT Martin’s Jason Simpson, the younger Simpson said he had the benefit of leaning on a network of people — from his dad, to Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, to former teammates like Tyler Booker and even his former coach, Nick Saban.

“Why wouldn’t I use all the resources I have?” said Simpson, who deleted all his social media accounts after the FSU loss. “You learn not to listen to the noise, but to the people who matter.”

Being the quarterback at Alabama, at least on the collegiate level, is akin to being the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the cleanup hitter for the New York Yankees.

It’s not for everybody and certainly not for anybody who has a glass jaw. Simpson is a Yankees fan and appreciates the way those players wearing the pinstripes over the years have gone about their business amid the glare of New York City and pressure of the New York media.

“You better have thick skin, and I’d say it’s that way at most of the SEC schools,” Jason Simpson said. “Ty’s been through a lot and persevered. I think that helped him after that first game.”

Jason’s UT Martin team played on Thursday to open the season, which enabled him to travel to Tallahassee and be there for his son’s first start. When Jason got home that next day, he had a nasty email waiting on him that had been sent to his UT Martin school address.

“It was from an Alabama fan, if you want to call him a fan, telling me that it was my fault that they had lost the Florida State game, and that it was on my son,” Jason recounted. “He said it was the worst quarterback performance he had seen in 46 years.”

Even for somebody who’s coached for decades, it was jarring.

“I didn’t know the guy and just said, ‘Hey, bless your heart,’ ” Jason replied.

That wasn’t the end of it.

The so-called fan fired off another zinger: “Make sure you don’t send your youngest son (Graham) here. We don’t want either one of them.”

With Simpson responding like a champ over the last two games, Jason thought about writing back: “How’s it looking now?” But he didn’t and instead has soaked in the way his son has bounced back like a proud dad.

“You’ve got to have that confidence and swagger, but you’ve also got to turn the volume down in your head,” Jason said. “Ty’s been able to do that, and that creates a calmness all around you.”

Simpson’s teammates and coaches have noticed, and after the 24-of-29 performance for 382 yards and four touchdowns in the 38-14 win over Wisconsin two weeks ago, Simpson attacked the open week like he was still competing for the job.

“He had an incredible two games, but that doesn’t faze him,” redshirt junior receiver Isaiah Horton said. “He’s eager to do more. He wants to do more. I love that about him.”

DeBoer said Simpson has slowed the game down.

“When you trust the guys around you, the reads will take you where the ball needs to go,” DeBoer said.

Now, having had an extra week to prepare for his biggest test of the season against Georgia, Simpson is eager to see how he and the Alabama offense fare against a defense Simpson is familiar with, having gone against Saban’s defense his first two years on campus. He’s also quick to point out that Georgia has had an extra week, too.

“Kirby’s defense is basically Coach Saban’s defense,” Simpson said. “It’s not the exact same, but close. The thing Coach Saban taught his quarterbacks is not only are you playing the players, but you’re playing the coordinator, (Glenn) Schumann, T-Rob (Travaris Robinson), Kirby, all those guys on Georgia’s defensive staff. They all worked for Coach Saban. What’s their mentality? When are they going to bring pressure? When are they going to play off and go base coverage? All those things matter, every bit of it.”

Three games into the season, Simpson said there’s a clearer identity on offense for Alabama and that getting top running back Jam Miller back for the first time all season will help open up things.

“He’s big in the run game and pass game, and understanding what we want to do is as important as anything,” Simpson said. “Coach Grubb is great at creating ways to get our guys the ball in space, and that falls on me to spread it around.”

It speaks volumes about Simpson that his teammates selected him to be a captain this summer, even before he started a game. That support was equally telling after Simpson received more heat than he deserved for the FSU loss. But nobody was skewered more than DeBoer, and Simpson said the way his coach handled that criticism set the tone for the team these last few weeks.

DeBoer didn’t suddenly become a yeller and a screamer, but the delivery of his message — not the message itself — but the way the message was communicated absolutely changed, Simpson said.

“What honestly has been the biggest difference and what has only sharpened our edge is that Coach DeBoer has been so intentional with everything he does and says,” Simpson said. “He’s got a chip on his shoulder as well because he feels like his back is against the wall, and we’re just going to keep on fighting and keep swinging.

“It’s Alabama against the world.”

For the longest time, Simpson felt like it was him against the world as he waited his turn. He could have gone just about anywhere out of high school in Martin, Tennessee, and narrowed his choices to Alabama, Clemson and Tennessee.

“I wanted to play for Coach Saban,” he explained.

His first year on campus in 2022 was always going to be a redshirt season with Bryce Young at quarterback, but the battle for the job in 2023 was wide open between Simpson and Jalen Milroe. Neither played well enough in the spring to be named the starter, and the Crimson Tide brought in Tyler Buchner from Notre Dame after spring practice to intensify the competition.

It was still a close race in the preseason. Milroe had gained a little more support in the locker room and won the job. With the exception of the South Florida game, when Milroe was benched and Buchner and Simpson split reps, Milroe kept the job the rest of the way in 2023 and led Alabama to an SEC championship and appearance in the College Football Playoff.

With Milroe set to return in 2024, it was only natural for Simpson to wonder if he should seek new horizons.

“There’s a lot going through your mind, and I knew a lot of other schools were calling,” Simpson said. “I couldn’t bring myself to leave.”

As a professional courtesy, Jason Simpson and Saban talked soon after Alabama beat Georgia in the 2023 SEC championship game. Jason’s question to Saban was direct: “Ty is going into Year 3. What do you think he needs to do?”

Viewing it through both a coach’s eyes and dad’s eyes, Jason realized he wasn’t at practice every day and trusted Saban to shoot him straight.

“He could have said, ‘Jason, I don’t think he’ll play and probably needs to go someplace else and play,’ ” Jason recalled.

Instead, Saban said the exact opposite.

“He needs to stay here with us. We’ll surround him with good players, and I think he’ll be a higher draft pick here if he stays,” Saban told Jason. “He can do the same thing that we did this year when his opportunity comes.”

Jason shared that news with his son, which only reinforced what Simpson was already thinking. He was staying put.

Three weeks later, Saban resigned.

With the portal window open after DeBoer’s hiring on Jan. 12, 2024 and Saban no longer in charge, Simpson had yet another decision to make, and this time, there was a conversation to be had with DeBoer.

After spring practice that year, it was obvious that the Crimson Tide were planning to stick with Milroe as the starter even though Simpson completed 70 percent of his passes during the spring and played well. Jason said he appreciated how honest DeBoer was with him when they talked after the 2024 spring and then again after the 2024 season.

“It was just to clear the air,” Jason said. “Ty and I both admired Coach DeBoer, and with me being an FCS coach, the way he worked his way up. He was very honest, but we knew coming off a Rose Bowl season and then having the coaching change and the dynamics of everything that it’s just not something you can go in there and do, make a change at quarterback. I got it, so we just kinda moved on to the next year (2025).”

Then came another conversation with DeBoer after this spring.

“Again, Coach DeBoer was great. He was upfront that they were not going to take a transfer but made it clear that he wasn’t going to give Ty the job, that he was going to have to go earn it,” Jason recounted. “That was good enough for me, and most importantly, was good enough for Ty. It was his decision.”

DeBoer’s genuineness was what sold Simpson, along with DeBoer’s offensive background. And similar to past transfer cycles, Simpson turned down more lucrative opportunities at other schools to stay at Alabama.

“I’d made it this far, leaned on my faith in God and knew it was going to turn out the way it was supposed to,” said Simpson, who will earn his master’s degree this December.

According to Jason, Simpson had one offer while he was at Alabama from a Big Ten school that would have paid Simpson four times what he’s making at Alabama. Simpson’s base NIL deal at Alabama isn’t $1 million, although it has some incentives built into it, Jason said.

“There were times that I would share some of these offers with Ty,” Jason said. “There were times that I wouldn’t share them with him, and there were times when he would just say, ‘Nah, don’t worry about it, let it go.’ There were a lot of opportunities out there for Ty, a lot of SEC opportunities and some that paid a significant amount.

“Once again, I give him credit. It never was about the money. He wanted to put his footprint there in Denny Chimes.”

Meanwhile, Simpson kept his head down, continued to work and bet on himself. All the while, he kept hearing one of Saban’s favorite sayings in the back of his mind.

“Make me play you.”

He’s done exactly that and has an answer queued up for what his response would have been had somebody told him a year ago or nearly four years ago when he arrived on campus that his first SEC road start would come against Georgia.

“Sign me up, and let’s roll.”