By Chris Marler
Alabama named their starting quarterback late Monday evening.
Ty Simpson will be QB1 for Alabama when they kickoff the season in Tallahassee against Florida State.
That news should come as no surprise to anyone in general let alone anyone that’s followed Alabama through Spring and Fall Camp. Simpson is a former five star and has been in the program for three years already. He has yet to throw a touchdown pass even in mop up duty. However, he does seem to check the boxes of what Kalen DeBoer and new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb want in a signal caller.
This also follows the blueprint to what Alabama did in 2020, which is what I’m sure Alabama fans hope happens again. Minus a global pandemic of course. But in that year, Alabama had a multi-year backup quarterback in Mac Jones who waited patiently for his time to start. He was able to hold off the then highest ranked recruit in program history, Bryce Young, and lead Alabama to their “18th” national title.
Fast forward five years later to 2025 and Alabama is once again in a similar situation.
The concern this time around for Alabama fans? It has nothing to do with Ty Simpson. It has much more to do with keeping his backup Keelon Russell happy.
Russell committed to Alabama last Summer after flipping from SMU. He then skyrocketed through the 2025 recruiting rankings after putting on elite performance after elite performance. He finished the cycle as the No. 2 overall player in the class and the now highest ranked recruit in program history.
That’s higher than Bryce Young, Julio Jones, Trent Richardson, Andre Smith and every other five star Nick Saban amassed during his coaching tenure as well as every other player that’s ever worn the crimson and white.
So the question that we should be asking Kalen DeBoer going into 2025 has nothing to do with Ty Simpson. The question we should be asking is the level of concern of how to keep a true freshman that’s not starting happy enough to stay in Tuscaloosa for 2026. That’s a much more difficult task in this era of college football than it was even five years ago when Saban was able to do it with Bryce Young.
That’s not to say it can’t, or won’t, happen. It’s just to say that in an era where tampering, NIL, and million dollar desperations are more rampant than ever, how do you get an 18 year old to buy in?
Even if DeBoer is able to beat Vanderbilt this year, keeping Russell would be his biggest win.
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