It's getting impossible for the national media to ignore Alabama QB Ty Simpson. After an uneven first start against Florida State, the redshirt junior has been nothing short of electric for the Crimson Tide in the three games since.
After carving up UL Monroe and Wisconsin, many were still taking a wait-and-see approach with Simpson. After he did the same thing to Kirby Smart and Georgia, there's nothing left that needs to be seen. Simpson has quickly turned from an unknown to one of the premier quarterbacks in college football.
People are beginning to take notice, though they still haven't caught up enough to overtake what they thought they knew in the preseason.
ESPN's Bill Connelly is a good example of that. He ranked all 68 Power Four quarterbacks after the first month of the season. Alabama's Simpson checks in at No. 8, a respectable position, but still lower than he should be.
Bill Connelly ranks Ty Simpson as the No. 8 QB in the country
Ask Alabama fans right now if they would trade Simpson for any other QB in the country, and they would probably answer no. Simpson has been cerebral at the line of scrimmage, diagnosing what he's seeing pre-snap, and then adjusting to what he's actually getting post-snap. He looked unsure of himself against Florida State. Since then, he's ripping throws with the confidence of a player with 30 starts under his belt.
Not only as he established himself as an elite college quarterback, NFL evaluators are beginning to take notice, too.
Simpson is completing 69% of his passes for 1138 yards and 11 touchdowns. He has yet to turn the football over this year, which has been a nice change of pace for the Crimson Tide after how turnover-prone Jalen Milroe was a season ago.
Per Connelly, his 13-game pace would be 3700 yards and 42 total touchdowns. Not bad for a guy who was mislabeled as a game-manager.
His QBR of 84.2 ranks 12th in the country. If you remove the Florida State game and focus only on the last three games, that number rises to 93.1, second only to USC's Jayden Maiava.
Simpson has emerged as a Heisman Trophy contender and the type of quarterback who can elevate this Alabama team into a National Championship contender. They'll need him to play to that level on Saturday against Vanderbilt and Connelly's No. 2 QB, Diego Pavia.
And just for giggles, remember how Auburn fans convinced themselves that the Tigers had the superior QB in the preseason? Jackson Arnold ranks 43rd in Connelly's rankings and is trending downward.