Almost halfway through his first regular season as a starter, Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson is one of the hottest arms in the country.
Fox Sports’ lead college football voice Joel Klatt is one of many national analysts that have taken notice of Simpson, who threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns in the Crimson Tide’s 30-14 win over Vanderbilt last Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Klatt made an interesting observation about Simpson on the Monday edition of “Next Round Live” on WJOX FM in Birmingham when speaking with hosts Jim Dunaway, Ryan Brown and Lance Taylor.
“If Ty Simpson’s name was was Ty Manning, we would cancel the end-of-season Heisman Trophy ceremony and just do it now,” Klatt said in reference to the contrast between Simpson and the hype surrounding Texas Longhorns starter Arch Manning all offseason.
As it stands now at least, Klatt believes Simpson is firmly in the Heisman race following another solid performance against Vanderbilt, just a week after he led the Crimson Tide to a 24-21 win in Athens over the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
“That’s the best passing game in college football. Simpson has been the best quarterback in college football from a passing perspective. There’s been other guys that have done things with their legs. I think (Oregon’s) Dante Moore is right there. He’s been playing really well. CJ Carr at Notre Dame has played really well, even though they’ve got a couple of losses.”
Entering Week 7, Simpson leads the SEC in passing yards with 1,478. Simpson has thrown 13 touchdowns against only one interception. He’s 19 yards ahead of Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joey Aguilar.
Klatt added:
“Simpson’s incredible. You know, I get to buzz through other tapes, but I really study the two teams that I’m gonna do (on Fox’s ‘Big Noon Saturday’ game), and Wisconsin just so happened to have Alabama on their schedule. So last week, when I’m preparing for Wisconsin, I’m really diving into the Alabama film when they played Wisconsin, and there were like fives times I want to say where I paused film… and I was just like, ‘Whoa, that was a big league, top-three draft pick throw.'”
Klatt went on to say that if Alabama could stay “competent” running the ball as it did against Vanderbilt, the Crimson Tide could go from an ugly season-opening loss at Florida State to winning the SEC outright.
Alabama’s run game got going against the Commodores with 146 rushing yards on the afternoon. Senior tailback Jam Miller had 22 carries for 136 yards (6.2 AVG) and a late touchdown.
“They took some strides running the football last week. They don’t have to be great running the ball, but you don’t want to be Washington of a few years ago. Once they got their (running) back hurt, they couldn’t really run it and then all of a sudden, you run into a team with a great pass rush and you’re stuck.
“That’s the fear for me for Alabama. If you don’t protect (Simpson), it turns into Florida State. So you’ve got to protect him two-fold with quality offensive line play and at least a competent run game to keep the defense honest. If they can do that, then I think Alabama might win the SEC.”
Alabama (4-1 overall, 2-0 SEC) is ranked No. 8 in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 poll. The Crimson Tide visit the 14th-ranked Missouri Tigers (5-0, 1-0) at Faurot Field in Columbia for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff this Saturday. The game will be televised on ABC.
Alabama football schedule 2025
All start times Central.
- Aug. 30: at Florida State (L, 31-17)
- Sept. 6: vs. UL Monroe (W, 73-0)
- Sept. 13: vs. Wisconsin (W, 38-14)
- Sept. 27: at Georgia (W, 24-21)
- Oct. 4: vs. Vanderbilt (W, 30-14)
- Oct. 11: at Missouri, 11 a.m., ABC
- Oct. 18: vs. Tennessee, 6:30 p.m., ABC
- Oct. 25: at South Carolina, TBA
- Nov. 8: vs. LSU, prime time
- Nov. 15: vs. Oklahoma, TBA
- Nov. 22 vs. Eastern Illinois, 1 p.m., ESPN+
- Nov. 29: at Auburn, TBA
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