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Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has only been in Tuscaloosa for a few short months, and the A-Day Spring Game was literally just played over the weekend.
So, the question everyone wants to know the answer to in T-Town about the Crimson Tide quarterback race truly can’t be answered until Alabama names its starting QB for Week 1 this fall. That moment is months away, much as fans want it to be now, so all Grubb can go on after these few short months is what he’s seen for himself, capped by the A-Day Spring Game on Saturday.
Two days later, at the end of his spring press conference, Grubb shockingly gave the Alabama football world a little bit to chew on, at least for now. The final question was asked of Grubb, and it had to do with the quarterback situation, and Grubb did not give the non-answer most would’ve thought he would.
Instead, Alabama’s new offensive coordinator was honest and straight-forward.
“If we’re playing a football game tomorrow, Ty Simpson would start,” said Grubb.
Simpson got a majority of the first-team reps over fellow quarterbacks Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell during Alabama’s spring game. Simpson also turned in the cleanest performance of any of the quarterbacks on Saturday, as he was the only QB to not turn the ball over against the Crimson Tide defense.
Simpson is a Tennessee native and is trying to capitalize on his chance to be Jalen Milroe’s successor in Tuscaloosa in 2025. By the looks of it during spring football and by the words from his own offensive coordinator, it looks like Simpson is on his way to doing just that.
But, again, it’s mid-April. We won’t know the real answer to the golden question in T-Town for several months.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
