Heading into the season with returning talent on both sides of the ball and high expectations for Year 2 of the Kalen DeBoer era, there was credence to the thought that Ty Simpson didn’t have to be Tua Tagovailoa or Bryce Young, and that he had to be more of a throwback Alabama quarterback like Greg McElroy or AJ McCarron.
Maybe there is enough talent around Simpson for him to be a game-manager, and that to be enough. Or maybe not. Alabama’s Week 1 loss to Florida State and its subsequent struggles running the ball proved that Simpson had to be something more, something special, and remarkably, the redshirt junior first-year starter has.