Last offseason saw a major overhaul in Tuscaloosa with Nick Saban’s surprise retirement and the hiring of Kalen DeBoer from Washington to take over the program. This offseason, however, despite missing the College Football Playoff with a disappointing finish to the year, there hasn’t been much change for Alabama.
The head coach is back, this time with his longtime offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who returned to DeBoer’s side after a year with the Seattle Seahawks. The offensive line returns three starters, the skill position players are mostly the same, and, led by Ryan Williams, are some of the best in the country. The most significant change also represents the biggest question for the Crimson Tide on the offensive side of the ball heading into 2025, and it’s an obvious one.
Is Ty Simpson good enough to lead Alabama to the College Football Playoff?
The biggest loss from Alabama’s offense wasn’t the first-round left guard, Tyler Booker, or transfer running back Justice Haynes. No, it was Jalen Milroe. For all his flaws, and there were plenty, Milroe led the Crimson Tide to the 2024 four-team CFP and put up prolific numbers in 2024 with DeBoer. His rushing ability uniquely threatened defenses, a way that Simpson, in his limited sample of work across his first three seasons in Tuscaloosa, hasn’t shown the ability to.
Simpson has a style more similar to DeBoer’s other previous quarterbacks, like Michael Penix Jr., who dominated the final season of the Pac-12 at Washington. A former five-star recruit, Simpson has physical gifts, but will have to win from the pocket against SEC defenses and rely more heavily on the playmakers around him.
Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron has preached patience to fans when it comes to the first-time starter, who is expected to win a three-way QB battle against Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. However, with Georgia on the schedule in Week 5 to open SEC play, and a Week 1 trip to Tallahassee to play Florida State, Simpson must prove he’s capable of winning big games early in the season to hold onto the job.
The other questions on the roster, at left guard, right tackle, and even running back after an underwhelming season from Miller in 2024, are very real questions that will need to be solved at fall camp and throughout the season. However, those position battles in the trenches and the distribution of carries in the backfield pale in comparison to the impact of the quarterback position.
If Ty Simpson is good, he can make up for questionable right tackle play from Wilkin Formby or a transition from Miller to Richard Young or another running back if it’s needed, but if he’s not, every other issue becomes amplified, and all of that shuffling becomes largely irrelevant.
The SEC has too many good quarterbacks to win it with subpar play at the position. Simpson doesn’t have to be a superstar for Alabama to make the CFP and even to win the conference, but he does have to be serviceable, and with just 50 career pass attempts, it’s still not a certainty that he is.