Ty Simpson didn't come into this season with much hype surrounding him. Most questioned when - not if - freshman phenom Keelon Russell would wrestle the job away from Simpson. It's a similar narrative that surrounded Mac Jones heading into 2020, with spectacular freshman Bryce Young waiting in the wings.
It's that lack of preseason hype that has forced Simpson to make up a lot of ground in the Heisman Trophy race. On Monday, On3's latest Heisman straw poll had Simpson as the co-favorite with Oregon's Dante Moore.
After a somewhat shaky performance in his first career start against Florida State, there's not a quarterback in the country who has played at a higher level since then than Simpson.
And according to college football analyst Joel Klatt, if his name was Ty "Manning" instead of Ty "Simpson", he'd be running away with the Heisman Trophy.
"If Ty Simpson's name was Ty Manning, we would cancel the end-of-the-season Heisman Trophy ceremony and just do it now," Klatt told The Next Round Live. "That's the best pure passing game in college football. Simpson's been the best quarterback in college football from a passing perspective."
Joel Klatt calls Ty Simpson the best quarterback in college football
If Arch Manning had Simpson's numbers, he would be the runaway Heisman Trophy favorite, a shoe-in for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and people would be talking about just how generational of a prospect he is. People wanted to have those conversations before he was ever the starting QB at Texas.
For Simpson, he's starting to get his recognition; it's just taking longer than it should have.
Simpson elevating to this level is a total game-changer for Alabama. It allows Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb to call the same kind of offense they ran at Washington with Michael Penix. They aren't having to tailor the playbook to a quarterback's strengths who isn't the best fit for the system anymore.
Simpson's 82.2 QBR is 13th in the country. That number remains lower than it should be because he put up a 47.6 QBR in Tallahassee. Since then, it's been all 80s and above.
Simpson finally threw his first interception of the year against Vanderbilt, but he threw for 340 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It speaks to how good he is that neither he nor Grubb nor DeBoer was completely satisfied with the performance against the Commodores.
They all know there's another level this offense can get to. There's another level Simpson can still reach. Alabama's close to putting it all together, and once they do, this offense is going to be next to impossible to stop.