It's crazy to think that Alabama might just be getting started signing 5-star quarterbacks
Dare I say, the rich are about to get richer.
When 5-star quarterback Ty Simpson spurned the likes of Clemson and in-state Tennessee for Alabama, it confirmed something that’s become all too obvious to the outside world.
This 5-star quarterback thing in Tuscaloosa? Yeah, it’s just getting started.
Some might’ve scratched their head reading that sentence. Doesn’t Alabama get 5-star quarterbacks every year? Nope. If Simpson signs with Alabama in 2022, it’ll mark Alabama’s second 5-star quarterback in a 3-year stretch. That could also mark the first time that Alabama has multiple 5-star quarterbacks on the roster at the same time.
I know what you’re thinking. How is that possible?
Well, let’s look back at the 5-star quarterbacks during the Nick Saban era (5-star ranking according to 247sports composite):
- 2010 — Phillip Sims (transferred in May 2012)
- 2015 — Blake Barnett (transferred in Sept. 2016)
- 2017 — Tua Tagovailoa (left for NFL in Jan. 2020)
- 2020 — Bryce Young
- 2022 — Ty Simpson
I suppose if you want to count Tagovailoa being on the roster for those couple weeks before making his NFL decision while Young was enrolled, fine. But in terms of Alabama having 5-star quarterbacks on the depth chart at the same time, 2022 is now set up to be the first time for that.
Anyone who even casually follows college football can understand why that would be the case. Tagovailoa and Mac Jones just led the program’s most prolific offenses in school history. Alabama is no longer the school that has a starting quarterback complete 6 passes in a national championship. Now, Alabama is the school that, in all likelihood, has consecutive first-round quarterbacks. It’s the school set to put 4 receivers in the first round in a 2-year stretch. It’s the school that just had a wide receiver win the Heisman Trophy.
It’s the school that now does this whole “passing” thing at an elite level.
Lost in the shuffle of Simpson’s commitment was that it came in part thanks to the work of new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien. It remains to be seen if he’ll scheme as well as his predecessor, but like Steve Sarkisian, O’Brien promptly stepped into the role and got a major commitment from a 5-star quarterback.
Simpson talked to ESPN about the role that O’Brien played in his recruitment, and that Alabama’s track record with sending players to the NFL mattered.
Uh, yeah. Why wouldn’t it?
If Jones, Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith all go in the top 16 — several of the latest mock drafts have that happening — Alabama will have had 7 offensive players drafted in the first half of Round 1 in a 2-year stretch (4 receivers, 2 quarterbacks, 1 offensive lineman). That’s something that even throughout this decade (plus) of dominance, we’ve never seen in Tuscaloosa. From 2008-19, how many offensive players did Alabama have drafted in the first 16 picks? Seven, and 5 of them were offensive linemen/running backs.
Think about that. This 2-year stretch is in position to match a 12-year stretch in terms of top-level offensive talent.
Now think about what 5-star quarterback wouldn’t want to go there.
Tagovailoa was, in many ways, the dawning of a new era at Alabama. Until Tagovailoa, Saban hadn’t had a first-round quarterback at Alabama. Tagovailoa was also the SEC’s only 5-star quarterback of the 2010s who earned an all-conference honor at the same school he signed with (Kyler Murray and Justin Fields were all-conference quarterbacks after they transferred outside the SEC).
There’s now proof of concept. In the last 3 years with 2 different coordinators and 2 different starting quarterbacks, Alabama’s passing offense ranked No. 6, No. 3 and No. 3. Not even Clemson or Oklahoma can claim top 6 passing offenses in each of the last 3 years.
The expectation is that Young will step in and continue that. Never mind the fact that Alabama ranks No. 126 of 127 FBS teams in percentage of returning offensive production. That doesn’t even account for the replacement of Sarkisian, AKA the 2020 Broyles Award winner as the top assistant in the sport.
The expectation is that Alabama will be as loaded as anyone at the game’s most important position. Gone are the days in which the Crimson Tide will go 4 classes without signing a 5-star quarterback. Even if Simpson slips to a 4-star by the time he signs on the dotted line, his commitment still served as a microcosm of what Alabama has evolved into.
It can take its brand new offensive coordinator and give a blue-chip quarterback recruit a pitch that’s second to none. Even Clemson, who has the Trevor Lawrence/Deshaun Watson angle, didn’t even win out. Simpson told ESPN that it was O’Brien’s experience working with Watson with the Houston Texans that helped sell him (spending 5 years in New England that Tom Brady guy apparently was also part of the pitch).
Alabama’s last 3 years could change the course of the next decade. It appears that Tagovailoa and Jones rewriting the record books yielded a 5-star quarterback migration to Tuscaloosa.
This 5-star quarterback migration feels different than Kevin Sumlin signing 5-star quarterbacks in consecutive cycles at Texas A&M in the post-Johnny Manziel craze (both transferred the same month). It doesn’t feel like Georgia, where Kirby Smart continues to stockpile 5-star quarterbacks even without a passing offense that has yet to be ranked in the top 40.
It feels like Alabama is on to a new chapter of its dynasty. And it might be the scariest one yet.
Well I guess I’m glad there’s an 85 scholarship limit otherwise Alabama would get everybody and the rest of us would get scraps.
So far, there are five 5* QB’s in this class. UGA, Texas A&M, and LSU each have one also. All of those schools have been recruiting great. Bama is obviously still great, but they will have more serious competition going forward.
why wouldn’t the competition be even less serious? Alabama has dominated recruiting for years and until Saban leaves that will not change, if anything it’s getting worse considering he just signed the best signing class of all time
Because LSU, UGA, and the Aggies have all improved their recruiting over the past few years.
For recruits or results? In the SEC, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Your comment makes no sense. LSU won the NC last season. The Aggies finished with their highest final ranking in over 80 years. Both are recruiting at a very high level.
Actually LSU finished .500 last season..
Ok BamaTroll. I’m sorry the FFG hurt your feelings and no one offered you a tissue. If you weren’t such a jerk, I’m sure someone would have. Until then, keep trolling. Bama won the NC this year. LSU won it last year.
Tough to just admit your first comment was just wrong isn’t it know it all? The season is over so last season Bama won it…
Change it to year if you like.. Your first statement was still wrong you piece of LSU trash…
Keep trolling. You should get those anger issues worked out. You’re just a joke now that no one can take seriously. Keep trolling.
And yet your dumba$$ was still wrong…
But hey just look past it.. SexualassaultU is good at looking past things..
Lol BamaTampon
SDS’s first and foremost aass clown.
Bama is in a league of its own especially with GOAT Saban at the helm. Throw in the playoffs which only 3-4 schools are involved with Bama, OSU, Clemson, and Oklahoma who are already getting the lions share of the top talent and to include this generations view of taking the easy route in life by choosinf to go to these 4 schools. You get the mess CFB is in now, no parity and playoff ratings getting lower.
So going to a team loaded with talent is taking the easy route? Going to a 2-8 team just for early playing time is the easy route.
With players becoming professionally paid athletes instead of student athletes, it all looks great for us except that things going forward are going to look very different. Throw in the transfer portal and you have a form of free agency. What’s next? But right now, I have no complaints for obvious reasons.
We all know the new QBU is LSU. After Myles Brennan wins the Heisman, and during Max Johnsons Heisman campaign our qb room will have Nuss, Howard, and Manning on the bench. Peeee yeeeeewwww LSU glory years about to begin. Geaux coach Oeaux and dem tigahs baby!
LSU is going to need to beat Bama again and make the playoff at least once in the next 4 years, or the narrative will become that they caught lightning in a bottle once. They’re better off than UGA is with the “1980” jab, though.
We caught said lightning in a bottle in 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2019… more national championships than anyone this century bubba.
That 2011 team is the only team to ever get shutout in a BCS NC game…
They got embarrassed and then their coach cried like a little b!tch on TV begging for a share of the title… Hey they got some second place rings though.
Baylor 2.0
‘Fantasy’ is appropriate. The coach who won the LSU title in 2003 has 7 by himself. By. Him. Self. The classroom for Math 099 is down the hall and the last room on the left.
How many young women did it take,
Anyone who has ever been to tigerland knows these athletes have it thrown at them nightly… you should see the girls that sign up to “show” the recruits around… is there anywhere on the planet with more finer females? I’m not buying that multiple lsu football players had to rape women for one minute.
We will know by the end of the week,
You don’t have to buy it S sexualassultU…. They turn their head while athletes take advantage of whoever they like…
“you should see the girls that sign up to “show” the recruits around…”
That statement alone shows you and LSU are trash…
True story. I know I’m old but let’s just say this means things have been going on down in Baton Rouge a long time. Back in the 70’s I knew a guy who went to Texas on a recruiting trip. He was offered a Cadillac convertible for his date that night and under the drivers seat he found a bottle of whiskey and a bag of pot. When he went on his recruiting trip to LSU he was also set up with a date for the night. When he woke up the next morning his date told him he must be good because she had made more ($1200) than any other player before to get him to sign.
Don’t feed the troll in FFG. He just wants to get you stirred up. He is also one sick individual in his seXual innuendos he posted on an article on SDS.
Ol sds67 literally still butthurt from that LSU fan and his fingah!
“Who will be the SEC Championship Game’s next first time winner” is the article he presented his demented and twisted innuendos.
Not a good look for good LSU fans on here. LSUSMC, ColoradoTigah and others who I consider respectful and honorable.
He doesn’t represent me. I completely quit responding to him several days ago. That would be like saying some of the rude Bama fans on the site represent you. We all stand on our own.
True. I told him I have no affiliation with other Bama fans. I will double down in not responding to his posts since all he wants is a reaction with his ridiculous and demented posts. Good day Marine.
ffg’s a troll like a few others on here who take it too far. Easy enough to ignore. Like LSUMC said, we all stand our own here.
With a healthy Brennan returning, backed by Johnson and Finley, and Nussmeier waiting in the wings, LSU has as good a QB room as anyone right now. If there’s truly a competition between Brennan and Johnson it will be interesting. Brennan’s got the stats but Johnson has the bigger wins and seems to be able to get it done when it matters – Brennan can’t exactly say the same. Decisions decisions…….
I cannot wait until the hammer is dropped on the crew of cheats and rapists in Baton Rouge. Idiots like you will crawl back under a rock where you belong.
55-17. I just wish Saban wouldn’t have applied the brakes. 70 points was entirely possible against that defense.
The transfer portal will even things out. When teams are loaded with 4 – 5 star talent those who did not win the starting job will start looking for a school where they can. The best will start and some of the others that have to sit will leave.
Except many times the best do not start. Case and point Joe Burrow last year, Trey Sermon this year, an on and on. The transfer portal works for attractive destinations like Florida, Miami, FSU, Oklahoma etc. These are brand name blue bloods, so at least the transfer portal evens out the playing field for maybe like 15 schools at best. The transfer portal “free agency” system is the way that almost elite schools like Florida and Oklahoma have mastered in order to compete with the likes of Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, and UGA, but few other schools can pull that off. You want to really even things out you place a cap on blue blood players per school but we all know that’s never going to happen.
Only at Alabama do quarterbacks go in as 5-stars and come out as 4 stars or transfers. Not much longevity in the NFL either. Joe Namath was the last one playing for more than a few years.
That’s very true. Tua won’t last too long in my opinion. Jones probably will though.
Alabama and Georgia is where talent goes to die. They succeed cause they grab blue chip players en mass. Now LSU I’ll give it to them they can develop guys. Florida has developed guys too now under Mullen, but Mullen did the same thing in Miss State. Fun fact if Kyle Trask becomes a starter in the NFL about 1/10 of all NFL starting quarterbacks would be Dan Mullen proteges (Dak, Trask, and Alex Smith) How many quarterbacks does Kirby or Nick have in the NFL??? 0… and it will continue to be 0, Mac will be eaten alive in the NFL.
How many NCs did any of these QBs under Mullen win? 0. How many SEC Championships has Mullen developed? 0. How many QBs does Nick or Kirby have? That would be 3 (not 0). Last: how many 3* QBs has Mullen developed into a National Champion QB? 0. How many for Nick? One
Nick’s supporting cast has usually won the natties for Bama not the quarterbacks. Also if you haven’t realized I’m in a mood for trolling Bama fans today so don’t take me too seriously.
Don’t worry nobody takes Florida seriously..
That’s now what your St. Nick said after the SEC Championship. That mentality is why Bama almost lost the game. St. Nick on the other hand always took Florida seriously and he was proven right.
Saban would say he is taking Mercer seriously… The thing is the result would be the same…
Another win for Bama… Nobody is impressed with a 4 loss Florida.
It’s funny you also Say Bama almost lost that game… No they didn’t almost lose that game…
But they did almost lose the game. Had Trask not been sacked 20 seconds was enough for 2-3 deep ball throws and then who knows what could have happened. And everybody was impressed with Florida after the SEC Championship game. Killed every team in the SEC East by at least double points. Blew out Georgia. Played Bama toe to toe like nobody else. Only dumba…es would count the bowl game where Florida was missing everybody. Overall in the regular season, Florida was one of the 6 most impressive teams in the country whether you like it or not. LSU was an embarrassment but upsets happen, and that was game was especially weird if you bothered actually watching it.
I don’t know why you Bama fans have to be so salty about the fact that Florida played you tougher than anybody else. Bama only had one close game maybe 2 if you want to count Ole Miss whereas LSU had 4 last year. Close games happen that doesn’t diminish the win or Bama’s historic season, if anything that makes Bama’s win over Florida all the more impressive compared to let’s say LSU’s blow out win of a Georgia team that really wasn’t that good and frankly miraculously won the SEC East last year.
“But they did almost lose the game. Had Trask not been sacked 20 seconds was enough for 2-3 deep ball throws and then who knows what could have happened.”
LMAO… They didn’t almost lost the game. Florida never lead… Got the ball back with 16seconds left and no timeouts inside their 15…. First play game over.. Florida never threatened that last drive…
Florida did play Bama tough but that doesn’t mean Bama almost lost
I think Florida was threatening to win lol
Really? Florida never led and the game ended with Florida on their on 7 after a one play series…
Threatening is a strong word but Florida technically had a chance to win with a hail mary on that last drive.
The last drive was a sack…
Yes it did
LOL, LSU and QB development. They haven’t recruited and developed a quality quarterback in eons. That trend isn’t about to change either, with Coach Moron at the helm.
Someone hit the Bama hornet nest
One plus for the rest of the SEC is Bama has to have the highest turnover of coaching staff in all of the NCAA. Eventually, they have to hire one that doesn’t work out.
Alabama will have the most spectacular dynastic collapse in the history of college football just watch.
Will it look like the spectacular collapse that Florida had at the end of the season?
No more like the one your brother had when he found out you two were sharing your sister.
The thing is, when it does end, all of these people who have been predicting it will happen tomorrow for the last decade will all be standing around like idiots saying, “See, I told you so…”
It will end someday. Probably sometime this decade, but definitely it will be over by the 2030s. Who knows, but it will end. Saban won’t coach forever it is what it is.
Thanks for proving my point there, Captain Obvious…
Why mention NFL. SDS is for college right? Also as UGA fan whenever someone mentions 1980 I feel really good. Reagan was elected, Belue to Lindsay, etc. Good times. If trolls were smart they would mention 2007, 2012, or 2017.
2012 and 2017 were amazing games. I will always be a dire hard Bama fan but it was sad that one of the teams had to lose either of those games. The 2018 game as well. All three were nail biters.
I’m old enough to realize how cyclical football is. I was a kid when we were dominant during the 70’s. We had a few good years in the 90’s but then we were wandering the wilderness during the era of Fran and the 3 Mikes. One of these days, another team will knock us off the summit. Until that time I’m going to enjoy the view.
Great post BamaHeel
That UGA vs UA game in 2012 is one of the greatest games I have ever watched. I have seen a lot of them in my 61 years.
High School player rankings don’t mean a whole lot overall. It’s kind of like records in College. No standard level of competition. With that said though, it matters less with how good they were in high school and how the college team trains and develops them. UGA gets 5 star QBs and how many get really good and stay? Joe Burrow came from Ohio State. Saban’s edge isn’t that he gets highly ranked classes. It’s that the players get much better while at Bama.
Tua won the national championship game as a freshman. Blake Barnett was a five star too but by the time he finished, I think he had as many transfers as he did touchdown passes. Ratings are fine but not always a guarantee of greatness. A three star QB just helped us win another championship.
I don’t like people saying Tua won the National Championship. He won the second half of that game, but Hurts got them all the way to the Championship game. And in my opinion, Hurts is possibly better than Tua.
Look at Tua and Hurts. Both the worst rookie starters by ten miles in the NFL in the draft class of 2021. Alabama quarterbacks are just not it man.
All Alabama QBs are only just it when they Florida.
Even crazier, they still compete with 3-star QBs
The kid hasn’t signed yet and I don’t start paying attention until the week before signing day. Then I check to see who is still committed. Back in the day, before the star system and recruiting services, Bama had 2 Parade All Americans on their team at the same time. That is when it was the pinnacle to be a Parade AA. Neither kid worked out, both wound up transferring when they were beaten out by a walk-on.
The rich keep getting richer. Other than LSU win in 2019 the only other team to win an sec title and a national championship in the same year was Auburn in 2010,since 2009. Bama 09,11(beat lsu’s ass in the title),12,15,17,00! I’d say thats total domination and its not letting up anytime soon, Bama owns this conference( Scary thing it’s the best conference in the country). I mean 2021 recruiting class, the best ever! No signs of bama slowing down. Catch us if you can, brigde the gap if you can, we’ll see if a&m,lsu,gators&Georgia( only relevant ones)can bridge the gap. The ironic thing is we did everything lsu did in 2019 and then some in 2020!!!. Broke all their records had a more prolific offence better defence and had a heisman trophy winner, and two more that could have won(Mac10,Najee H.)!It took us one year to do what the tigers did. Just looked our last recruiting class. Best ever! And we’ll be a top 3 class in 2022. Nice addition, Ty Simpson along w/ B.Young. wow were far from thru. Catch us if u can. RTR!
Ty Simpson will not stray, Bama will sign him.
Carl Scott(jay valai), Charles Huff(Robert Gillespie), Steve Sarkisian(Bill O’Brian), Jeff banks(jay Graham),Kyle flood(doug marrone), all left, replaced with guys who are just as efficient in recruiting and on the field. Bold statement that I believe. Saban just reloads not only with players but with coaches. Jay Graham and Bill O’Brian already made huge noise pulling the strings on ty Simpson. Jay Graham pulled the strings on Elijah Brown at tightend. 11th best in the nation. Athletic freak. Already better , then Jeff banks at recruiting tightends. He was awful. Except for Billingsley.
5-stars have a dream of going to the NFL yet Alabama rarely ever has had a good NFL QB.
Oh no its scary to think of Alabama with more 5 stars than they already have. (i shudder at the thought of it)