"It's his job to lose" - A.J. McCarron dishes on Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell QB1 battle at Alabama

After playing as a backup in the last two seasons, Ty Simpson is anticipated to take over as Alabama's starting quarterback in the upcoming season. The redshirt junior impressed significantly during the spring camp, earning the edge over his competitors.

On Wednesday, Alabama legends A.J. McCarron and Trent Richardson discussed in detail the current state of the Crimson Tide heading into the second season under Kalen DeBoer on “The Dynasty Podcast.”

When Richardson questioned McCarron on the ongoing quarterback competition at the program, the former quarterback expressed his confidence that Simpson had already won the job.

“I think Ty is the guy," McCarron said. "I've been saying it from the beginning of the show. I think it's his job to lose, not only from an experience standpoint, but I think he has a ton of talent.

“I've worked with Ty, have trained with him in the past even when he was a young pup coming out of high school, so I think he has a ton of arm talent. He can make every throw on the field.”

Simpson competed with redshirt sophomore Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell during the spring camp. His experience as a backup to Jalen Milroe seems to have elevated him over the other two options.

Ryan Grubb reiterates Ty Simpson is leading the starting quarterback race

Alabama's offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, made it known in his post-spring camp press conference that Ty Simpson is leading the quarterback race. He reiterated that fact when he was questioned about it by Ryan Fowler in his appearance on Tide 100.9’s “The Game” last Thursday.

“He is right now,” Grubb said. “We don’t really deal in absolutes until we have to, but I was trying to answer that as honestly as I could. I knew that people were looking for direction and, shoot, so are the guys in the room. Those were not surprising things.

“Those are things that we had already talked about with the guys. We had our post-spring evaluations done with the guys. Ty took care of the football better. He operated better. … He really started to show more of those characteristics. But we’re still going to let them compete.”

Simpson has appeared in six games from the bench in each of the past two seasons, after playing in four games as a freshman in 2022. Over his tenure in Tuscaloosa, he has totaled 381 passing yards with no touchdowns while rushing 130 yards and three touchdowns.