Ty Simpson could have left Alabama football. When he first lost a quarterback competition to Jalen Milroe before the 2023 season, he could have hit the portal, and the option persisted while he sat as a backup in 2024 as well.

Instead, Simpson stayed loyal, and now his time could be coming soon. Crimson Tide coaches told reporters that the redshirt junior was leading the current quarterback battle, and he seems mostly likely to be the starter in 2025.

Simpson is working as a Manning Passing Academy instructor in Louisiana this week, where he was asked about his decision to stick around.

“I’m not gonna sit here and say it wasn’t hard, because there were some days where I felt like God wasn’t on my side and I didn’t really understand his plan,” Simpson said in a video posted by Crescent City Sports. “But I prayed about it, and at the end of the day, there wasn’t anywhere else where I wanted to play. I felt that God had put me in Tuscaloosa for a reason. I always felt like I could accomplish everything that I could, still to this day, with winning a national championship and being a first-round pick there at the University of Alabama.

Simpson is battling with fellow returnee Austin Mack and true freshman Keelon Russell for the starting job in 2025. He joined the Crimson Tide under former head coach Nick Saban ahead of the 2022 season, as a five-star prospect himself.

The Tennessee native said the bonds he built at UA were too difficult to abandon.

“I couldn’t leave my friends, my teammates,” Simpson said. “Some of my best friends who are going to be in my wedding one day are my teammates there at the University of Alabama. Seeing them on a different sideline, it just didn’t fit right to me.

“So with coach Saban’s guidance and the guys that are one the team and go to school there, there was nowhere else I’d rather be than the University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa.”

Simpson’s loyalty has earned him the respect of one of the nation’s best passers. Clemson QB Cade Klubnik said in an interview this week that he thinks Simpson, among other quarterbacks who took the long road to a starting job, deserve credit.

“I’ve got so much respect for the guys who are staying loyal,”Klubnik told On3 in a recent interview. “Guys like Arch [Manning], Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar and Ty Simpson. Those are the guys that come to mind. The guys that believe in the program and believe in the culture that they’re at. Just chase to get better every single year. There’s a reason that those are four of the best quarterbacks in college football right now. Guys that have stayed loyal, that have put their noses to the dirt and just went to work, and those are the guys that I respect so much.”

Alabama will begin preseason camp in early August, when Simpson will try and nail down the starting job. The Crimson Tide opens the 2025 season on Aug. 30, with a trip to Tallahassee to face Florida State.