Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson’s college career is over. Simpson is declaring for the NFL Draft after spending four years at Alabama including the last year as the Crimson Tide’s starting quarterback, ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported Wednesay.
Simpson waited his turn to be the Crimson Tide’s starting signal caller and performed well when the opportunity presented itself. The 6-foot-2 quarterback threw for 3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns and five interceptions in his redshirt junior season in Tuscaloosa.
Ironically, the Alabama quarterback declaring for the NFL Draft is bad news and not good news for Tennessee. Multiple reports made it sound unlikely that Simpson would return to Alabama if he did play another season of college football. Instead, Simpson would enter the transfer portal with Tennessee being one of the top contenders to potentially land the West Tennessee native’s services.
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“I think without question, Tennessee is calling the portal for a quarterback,” college football insider Chris Low said on the RTI Low Down Podcast Sunday night. “The one that’s most intriguing, and Bama fans and Tennessee fans are going to sit up straight when I say this, is Ty Simpson. I do not believe Ty Simpson will be back at Alabama next year, I think he’s gone. I think it’s either he’s going to the pros and entering the draft, or I think he’s going to go into the portal.
“Ty has been around for a while. He’s a pretty savvy kid. His dad, Jason, is a coach. So, they’re not going to do anything without talking to the right people and talking to people who know, most importantly. Tennessee kid, who I think was interested in coming to Tennessee. It was that transition between Pruitt and Heupel. Sort of a weird time. I think there were other times during his career at Alabama, where he might have thought about transferring, and Tennessee was in his thoughts. It just didn’t end up happening.
“I think this time, if he does decide to transfer — his decision in my mind will hinge on simply this: If he gets the kind of feedback from pro people that he is a first-round draft pick, then I think he’s gone. I think he’ll go to the NFL. And you know what, he probably should. He got hit a lot, he took a lot of hits, he got hit a lot and this was his fourth year on campus. If he gets from NFL GMs, scouts, ‘Yeah, you’re the third quarterback in the draft. We think you’re going to go somewhere between 15 and 25.’ I think he’s gone.
“If that feedback is not that emphatic about, ‘Well, maybe you slide into the second round.’ Then, I think he’s going to look seriously at transferring, and if he does, then I think he lands at Tennessee. I think Oregon is the other school that I’ve heard the most about. But if he does transfer, if he does transfer, I think you’re going to see Ty Simpson as Tennessee’s quarterback next year.”
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Josh Heupel was in Martin, Tennessee earlier this week as three-star cornerback Miles Brown captured him in a photo at Westview High School. While unconfirmed, Heupel almost certainly met with some combination of Ty Simpson and his family.
NFL teams, in the end, gave Simpson a first round grade with the Alabama signal caller currently projected as the third quarterback in the 2026 draft class. That was enough for Simpson to forego his final season of college eligibility and begin his NFL career.
Tennessee now turns its attention to Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt who plans on visiting Tennessee starting Wednesday night according to Volquest’s Austin Price. Leavitt ranks as the top player in the portal and has taken visits to Kentucky and LSU so far. Oregon is also a player in his recruitment.
