Kalen DeBoer praises Ty Simpson after Wisconsin win: ‘I think he’s risen to the occasion’
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Kalen DeBoer saw Ty Simpson win the starting quarterback battle in fall camp, and now the Alabama head coach is seeing Simpson thrive in real game situations early on in the 2025 season.
That continued on Saturday afternoon, when Simpson was on point for the 19th-ranked Crimson Tide in a 38-14 victory over Wisconsin at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After a forgettable opener for Simpson (and everybody else) in a loss at Florida State, Simpson has been just about flawless over the last 2 weeks. In Week 2, he completed all 17 of the passes he threw in a rout of UL Monroe.
But Saturday would tell DeBoer something else about Simpson, with it being a national TV matchup on ABC against a Big Ten team. Well, it was more of the same for Simpson, who completed 24 of his 29 passes for 382 yards and 4 touchdowns in a 38-14 thrashing of the Badgers.
“He’s been playing really well the last two weeks. I think he’s risen to the occasion. We challenged him last week a little bit, and I like where his head is at,” said Kalen DeBoer of Simpson, who waited his turn the past couple seasons behind Jalen Milroe and is now flourishing since that Week 1 loss.
Now, comes a bye week for the Tide and Simpson before the real work begins. Alabama will start its SEC gauntlet on Sept. 27 with a showdown at Georgia, and then it’ll be challenge after challenge following that game as Simpson enters his first SEC journey as the starter.
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.
