Getty Image / Lance King
The Alabama Crimson Tide are dealing with something this offseason that they haven’t dealt with in a while.
It isn’t clear right now who their next starting quarterback will be.
There has been a pretty clear candidate to take over every year in recent years. Bama went right from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa before Hurts even left the program. Then they went from Tua to Mac Jones. Jones was replaced by Bryce Young, who won a Heisman Trophy and is now heading to the NFL Draft.
Now they have a quarterback competition going on between Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson to decide who their next starter will be.
Milroe seemed to be the frontrunner for the job after acting as Bryce Young’s backup this season and stepping in for him when he was injured.
However, it appears it is actually Ty Simpson who has the inside track to win the starting job for Alabama this offseason
Who will be QB1 at Alabama?https://t.co/M8obaJEniR
— Saturday Down South (@SatDownSouth) February 9, 2023
It’s Simpson — not Jalen Milroe — who has an inside track to become the Tide’s next QB1. Rees’ addition only helped that cause.
Yes, part of that is because Rees recruited Simpson and not Milroe.
It looks like Simpson has been helped by the Crimson Tide hiring Tommy Rees who had been involved in trying to recruit him for Notre Dame before Alabama brought him in to be their offensive coordinator.
While Milroe was the backup this season, he wasn’t particularly impressive throwing the ball when he was called on to replace Young. He completed just 16 passes for 176 yards in the two games where he got major playing time.
He was able to do a lot of damage with his legs in those games, running for 172 yards, but it looks like that might not be enough for him to stay ahead of Simpson on the depth chart.
Whichever QB ends up winning the battle, they are going to have a lot of pressure on them to perform right from the start of the season.