TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- On Jan. 10, 2024, two days after backup quarterback Ty Simpson decided to remain at Alabama rather than transfer, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban announced his retirement, ending his remarkable 17-year run at the school that included six national championships.
Even though Saban was no longer in charge, he still found time to give Simpson one more ass chewing while he was cleaning out his office.
Many times during the previous two seasons, when Simpson was stuck behind starters Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe, Saban warned him about being too focused on the outcome and what others were doing rather than trying to improve.
"To be honest with you, it kind of pissed me off because I didn't think it made any sense," Simpson said. "I thought he just wanted me out of his office."
That was Saban's departing message to Simpson as well.
"He was brutally honest," Simpson said. "He was like, 'You're such a good kid. I'm a huge fan and love you, but you have to take that next step. You can't be doing this.'"
Simpson's meteoric rise from being a player who couldn't get on the field to having the third-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy and being a potential top-5 pick in the 2026 NFL draft wasn't easy.
After a stunning season-opening slip against Florida State, the No. 4 Crimson Tide (8-1, 6-0 SEC) have won eight games in a row heading into Saturday's SEC showdown against No. 12 Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2) at Bryant-Denny Stadium (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
"I think that if we don't lose that first game, we wouldn't be where we are, to be honest with you," Simpson said. "I think the first game made us self-reflect and made us understand, like, 'All right, what are we going to do now?'"
WHEN ALABAMA SIGNED Simpson, it was widely believed in the program that he would eventually replace Young, who was chosen by the Carolina Panthers with the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NFL draft.
Simpson had the talent and background: He was the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the Class of 2022 in ESPN's recruiting rankings. He was the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year after throwing for 2,827 yards with 41 touchdowns while leading Westview High to a Class 2A state championship as a senior. And Simpson had been around the sport his entire life. His father, Jason, is in his 20th season as head coach at FCS program Tennessee-Martin.
During his first two seasons at Alabama, however, Simpson couldn't get out of his own way. After redshirting as a freshman, he couldn't beat out Milroe for the starting QB job and attempted just 20 passes in six games in Saban's final season in 2023.
According to Saban, Simpson couldn't overtake Milroe because he spent too much time beating himself up.
"He was wound so tight and was always looking at how well he did compared to how well somebody else did," said Saban, who now works as an analyst for ESPN. "It was almost like a guy in competition to see who sells the most cars. They're scurrying around worrying about what the other guys are doing, not totally focused on what they're doing. If he made a bad play, he'd get totally frustrated about it and make another bad play."
After the Crimson Tide hired Washington's Kalen DeBoer two days after Saban's sudden retirement, Simpson's first encounter with his new coach didn't go well, either. It was little more than a brief handshake, as Simpson remembers it.
"I just introduced myself, and he kind of blew me off," Simpson said. "He was like, 'Yeah, we'll meet everybody later.'"
As Simpson watched DeBoer spend time with Milroe, he wondered if it was still the right decision to remain at Alabama. When Washington quarterback Austin Mack announced he was transferring to join his coach, Simpson requested a meeting with DeBoer to figure out where he stood with the new staff.
At the time, Alabama's quarterback room also included Julian Sayin, the No. 2 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2024. Sayin transferred to Ohio State nine days after DeBoer was hired.
"I asked for a meeting with him because I was contemplating whether I was wanted here," Simpson said. "They were bringing Austin in. I knew Jalen was the starter. I just didn't know my place."
Behind the scenes, the wheels were already in motion to find Simpson a new team if he wasn't wanted in Tuscaloosa. His mother, Julie, happened to be in town helping him move when Saban announced he was stepping down. She stayed for about a week to help her son figure out his future.
Following Simpson's awkward introduction to DeBoer, his family started exploring options. Simpson's parents told him not to attend the first two days of classes in case he wanted to transfer. It was decided that if Simpson had to leave Alabama, he would transfer to SEC rival Georgia. His mother was already searching for a place for him to live in Athens.
Jason Simpson reached out to Alabama co-offensive coordinators Nick Sheridan and Ryan Grubb (who would leave the following month to be the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks) and had good conversations with them. But there were no assurances that Ty would play the next season, as the returning Milroe had led the Crimson Tide to a 12-2 record and a College Football Playoff appearance.
"The timing was so fast," Jason Simpson said. "As his dad, I couldn't tell him what was the right thing to do."
In the end, Ty's concerns were put to rest after his meeting with DeBoer, who had just guided Washington to an undefeated regular season. The Huskies, led by quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and a high-flying offense, lost to Michigan 34-13 in the CFP National Championship.
Plus, if Simpson had transferred to Georgia, he probably would have sat behind returning starter Carson Beck. If he was going to be a backup again, Ty figured he might as well do it at a familiar place with teammates he loved.
"He was so prayerful about going to Alabama and knew that was where the Lord was leading him," Julie Simpson said. "He was like, 'I know this is where he wanted me to be, so I'm not leaving. I'm going to stick it out and see what this will do.'"
JULIE SIMPSON KNEW from an early age that her son was more driven than most kids. When Ty was 4, she signed him up for soccer to help burn off his energy. In the first few practices, he peppered his coach about the game's rules and what he was supposed to do.
When Ty started collecting sports cards, it became an obsession. She drove him all over town looking for packs.
Simpson's parents made him wait a year after he was eligible to sign up for tackle football, but he was all-in once he started playing. Since Jason was busy coaching UT Martin's team, Julie videotaped Ty's practices and games. She would drop the camera off at Jason's office and a staff member would download the tape.
Jason and Ty reviewed the practices and games together, with his dad offering suggestions on how to improve his mechanics, pointing out receivers he missed and teaching him how to adjust his offensive linemen.
Ty was in fourth grade.
"He would go back to his practices and he would literally tell his teammates and his friends and they'd talk about it in school," Julie said. "Thankfully, he had some sweet coaches. They'd ask Ty about what his dad said, and he would tell them. That's kind of where he started really becoming obsessed with football even more than he already was."
After UT Martin's games, Julie analyzed the stat sheet during her husband's news conferences. When Ty was old enough to understand stats, she made sure he had a box score, too. At Alabama, Ty still carries one to postgame interviews and critiques what the offense did and didn't do well.
"I laugh because as many Coach Saban-isms as he has -- and you can get a lot in 2½ years -- if you listen to his dad in any of his press conferences, Ty sounds just like him," Julie said.
Growing up in Tennessee, Ty loved to hunt ducks. He started making his own duck calls -- and that became an obsession, too, as he worked to get them just right. Julie had to wear headphones in their house because he blew the calls so often.
One day in high school, Ty called his mother and told her that another driver had rear-ended his truck. He was OK and said the wreck wasn't bad. When Julie arrived at the scene, she realized it was much worse than Ty described. The other car was totaled, and his truck was badly damaged. Other drivers told her the collision sounded like a train wreck.
"I was blowing my duck calls," Ty told her. "I didn't hear it."
In his first three seasons at Alabama, Ty's drive for perfection ended up holding him back. As a coach's son, he was more familiar with X's and O's than most players. He had been drawing defenses and route trees on a whiteboard with UT Martin's coaches since he was about 10.
Through high school, Ty was tutored by young assistants who ended up becoming some of the brightest offensive minds in the game: Georgia Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade, Panthers quarterbacks coach Will Harriger, Nebraska offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and Bengals pass game coordinator Justin Rascati, among others.
Ty had such an intricate knowledge of the game by the time he reached college that Jason Simpson urged his son to rely on his instincts.
"He is a perfectionist when it comes to throwing and he's very infatuated with the footwork and the finish and how the ball is supposed to spin correctly and stuff," Jason said. "Now I think he's kind of learned to just complete the pass, man, and move on. We'll fix that in the offseason."
Ty's frustration over his lack of playing time early on at Alabama boiled over when he made the incorrect read on a goal-line play during a spring scrimmage in 2023. Then-offensive coordinator Tommy Rees jumped on him, and Jason Simpson sensed his son was still struggling during the drive home. The incident left Ty in tears and questioning whether he would ever get a chance to play at Alabama.
"Man, where are you with your faith?" Jason Simpson asked his son. "Because you shouldn't be having that kind of anxiety. You've got to be able to let it go. You can't just sit there and replay every play all the time in your head when you make a mistake."
Saban described the start of Ty's college career as a "cycle of negative spiraling."
"He was just focusing on all the wrong stuff," Saban said. "He's a great kid -- you're not going to find a better kid. But sometimes the great kids are wired and driven to perfection, which can be a curse or a blessing depending on how you apply it to yourself."
Jason knew that every time Ty came home, he was peppered with questions about whether he was ever going to play or be Alabama's starter.
"That gets on anybody," Jason said. "I just think over a period of time, he learned how to handle that better. His faith played a big part in lifting that off of him, realizing that he has a lot of blessings and he's not only identified if he's the starting quarterback at Alabama."
LAST SEASON, AS Alabama struggled throughout a 9-4 season, Ty again played sparingly, attempting 25 passes in six games.
In practices, though, Ty proved to DeBoer and his assistants that he was ready to take the reins. Once Milroe declared for the NFL draft, Ty was left to battle Mack and highly regarded freshman Keelon Russell for the starting job this offseason.
Importantly, Ty was no longer battling himself.
"One day, it just kind of clicked," he said. "I figured out I need to worry about myself and kind of just play. I understood what [Saban] meant about being outcome-oriented. I quit worrying about what will so-and-so think about me or what will Coach Saban say about me."
Finally, in Alabama's opener at Florida State on Aug. 30, Simpson took the field as the starter. His debut was a disaster, as he completed 23 of 43 passes for 254 yards with two touchdowns in the Tide's stunning 31-17 loss. He was sacked three times, as the Tide had no answers against a team that finished 2-10 in 2024.
While DeBoer might have been public enemy No. 1 on Alabama sports radio and fan message boards, Simpson was a close runner-up. His father even received an email from a disgruntled fan who called his son the "worst quarterback in Alabama history."
"It was pretty dark, I'm going to be honest with you," Ty said. "Just because of all the hard work, all the waiting, and the buildup. I'd been waiting so long for this. I finally got my chance in a crazy environment with a good team. It was all that I asked for, right? And it all just crumbled in my hands."
Julie and Jason sensed that Ty was struggling, so she drove to Tuscaloosa and spent the week with him. She brought along his goldendoodle, Rip, who is named after the ranch hand in the TV show, "Yellowstone." She cooked his favorite foods, such as lasagna and chocolate chip cookies, and gave him "unconditional love."
Jason gave him an honest assessment. When Ty asked his dad how he played against the Seminoles, his dad told him, "Well, you know, you didn't play great. With the way y'all's offense is built, whoever plays quarterback in that system has to play at a high level."
DeBoer and Grubb, who returned to Bama this season, told Ty the same thing: He had to play better for the Tide's offense to work. DeBoer opened the quarterback competition the next week in practice, giving Mack some snaps with the No. 1 offense.
Instead of wallowing in his mistakes as he might have in the past, Simpson practiced with a chip on his shoulder and went to work.
"It probably blindsided him for a second, but he responded in a great way all week long and produced exceptionally well on that Saturday," DeBoer said. "It was what we needed him to do. I'm really proud of him because it can go one of two ways: Guys can kind of be like, 'Whoa, they just don't believe in me.' You can feel sorry for yourself, or you can bow up and go compete and go get better."
In Alabama's 73-0 rout of Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 6, Simpson completed each of his 17 pass attempts for 226 yards and three touchdowns.
Three weeks later, he threw for 276 yards with three touchdowns (one running) in a 24-21 win at then-No. 5 Georgia, ending the Bulldogs' 33-game home winning streak.
"He had the ability and the talent," Saban said. "He got all tangled up in himself psychologically to where he couldn't function very well. He's learned how to not do that. I think he learned and listened, and he wanted to be good. He's really good at self-assessing, but now he self-assesses in a positive way, not in a way that frustrates him."
When Simpson looks at a stat sheet now, he's still critical. If the Crimson Tide held the ball for 38 minutes and scored 27 points, he'll note they probably left a couple of touchdowns on the field. If he was sacked four times, he recognizes he probably should have gotten the ball out sooner.
But he'll also pat himself on the back for completing a pass to tailback Jam Miller on a fourth-down rollout, or for checking down on a pass to Germie Bernard when a defender was in his face.
Through nine games, Simpson has completed 66.9% of his attempts for 2,461 yards with 21 touchdowns and one interception.
"You knew he was capable," DeBoer said. "Everyone's confident in him. As he continues to step up and be vocal, it's genuine. Because he works hard, the team really responds and takes it in a positive way when he's critical of himself and critical of us as an offense or as a team."
There's been a pair of goals written on the Simpsons' family calendar this fall. Ty's younger brother, Graham, followed him as the starting quarterback at Westview High. Last season, he threw for 4,135 yards with 57 touchdowns and one interception. He had a state-record 620 yards with eight touchdowns in one game.
Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miami and Vanderbilt are among the programs that have already offered Graham, who is in the Class of 2028, a scholarship.
This season, the Chargers are 10-0 and among the favorites to win the Class 3A state title. The state championship game will be played at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, the day before the SEC championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Simpsons would like nothing more than to play a doubleheader on the first weekend of December.