If you’re an avid Crimson Tide fan like myself, I think it’s pretty easy to see some resemblance between Alabama’s current quarterback room and some notable signal callers of years past.
Starting from the top, the Tide’s go-to guy in 2025, Ty Simpson. Ty Simpson’s career path is looking very similar to Mac Jones’ time at Alabama.
Of course there are differences. As a prospect, Mac Jones was only a three star recruit coming out of the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida. Ty Simpson was a five star recruit and the fourth ranked quarterback in his class and a top 30 recruit in the nation when he graduated from Westview High School in Martin, Tennessee.
Mac Jones is undoubtedly one of the faces of the Saban era at Alabama. Jones started his career as a backup to Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, before Hurts eventually transferred to Oklahoma and Tua took over as the full time starter.
In 2020, Mac Jones became the full time starter for the first time in his career.
Similarly, Ty Simpson started his career off as a backup to two other quarterbacks whose names also became etched in Alabama history. He was third on the depth chart in 2022, behind starter Bryce Young, who won the Heisman trophy the year prior , and Jalen Milroe, who took over the following year in 2023.
They both stuck around and didn’t enter the portal, and eventually found themselves at the helm of the program.
Mac Jones 2020 season speaks for itself. In any other year he would’ve run away with the Heisman, but it happened that his WR1 Devonta Smith had arguably the greatest wide receiver season in the history of college football that year.
Mac Jones led his team to an undefeated record and a National Championship thrashing of Ohio State. He also won his fair share of awards, receiving the Davey O’Brien Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and the Manning Award.
His main feat in relation to Ty Simpson though, is his then-record completion percentage.
In 2020 Jones set a college football single season record with a completion percentage of 77.4%, which Bo nix broke by five hundredths in 2023.
Ty Simpson is off to something of a blazing start himself too. In 2025, Simpson is boasting a 67.8% completion percentage along with 2,184 yards and 20 touchdowns to one pick.
His completion percentage is not yet record breaking, nor is it the top in the nation, but Simpson is undeniable. The potential Heisman winner and number one draft pick has the chance to do something special at Alabama.
In recent years, two other elite Alabama QBs flipped to committing elsewhere, those quarterbacks being Bryce Young and Keelon Russell.
Bryce Young was a stud coming out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California and was the number two overall recruit and number one ranked quarterback in the 2020 class.
Originally committed to USC, Young flipped to the Tide in September 2019 after spending over a year committed to the Trojans.
We all know Young as the kid who came into Tuscaloosa undersized, short, and weighing 180 pounds, and who left Tuscaloosa as a Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and Davey O’Brien Award winner and an SEC champion.
Russell, the true freshman gunslinger out of Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas was originally committed to the SMU Mustangs in closeby University Park, just 30 minutes from Duncanville.
Russell is similar to Young, as coming out of high school he was listed at a taller 6’3” but around 175-180 pounds. He was undoubtedly an undersized quarterback as far as weight is concerned in the SEC.
Russell flipped his commitment to Alabama, earned his fifth star and became the 2024-25 National Gatorade Player of the Year.
Russell and Young are the two highest ranked recruits in Alabama program history. After incredible high school careers they look to step in after a year as the backup.
Finally, two quarterbacks who flew a little under the radar at first, coming into teams that already seemed to have found their quarterbacks, but who possess all the tools to become something special in Tuscaloosa, Tua Tagovailoa and Austin Mack.
Tagovailoa is of course the hero of “2nd and 26”, where after replacing starter Jalen Hurts at halftime, he took a huge sack in overtime against Georgia in the National Championship before firing to fellow true freshman Devonta Smith for the walkoff 41-yard touchdown on the very next play.
Tagovailoa was the number one ranked recruit in the state of Hawaii in the class of 2017, the number one ranked dual threat quarterback in the nation, and a five-star recruit.
He took his talents to ‘Bama where he backed up Jalen Hurts for a year, replaced him during the 2018 title game and led the Tide to a win, remaining the starter at Alabama going forward.
Tagovailoa left his mark on Tuscaloosa as a Maxwell Award winner, Heisman Trophy finalist, and national champion.
Now Mack, the redshirt sophomore who followed head coach Kalen DeBoer from Washington, is stepping into a similar backup role for the Tide.
This isn’t to say Mack wasn’t competitive in camp, but the pieces just didn’t fall in place for him to be the starter.
Mack was a four star recruit in the class of 2023 after reclassifying, and the eighth ranked quarterback in the nation, and forgoing his senior season to enroll at Washington under Kalen DeBoer, and eventually following his coach to Tuscaloosa.
Mack has a live arm, much like Tagovailoa, and there is no doubt he has the arm talent. Only time will tell how the 19 year old’s future at Alabama will play out.
Historically elite programs like Alabama have no issue replacing quarterbacks over time, but it isn’t often that you find similarities quite like the ones between these guys.
