This past Saturday was the first A-Day for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team under new coach Kalen DeBoer, providing the fans with their first glimpse of the new offensive and defensive strategies being used at the Capstone.
The quarterback is given a lot of responsibility by the DeBoer offensive design, but it also allows the signal caller to excel by producing mismatches in the pass patterns that open up chances for big, momentum-building plays.
In Bryant-Denny Stadium, backup quarterback Ty Simpson looked good in front of a small crowd. The redshirt sophomore led the offense to two touchdown drives while completing seven of his twelve throws for 102 yards.
On A-Day 2024, how did Ty Simpson manage the Alabama offense?
Drive 1: 75 yards, 14 plays, touchdown
Red Morgan made a swift entry into the backfield and brought a free rusher face-first into the backup quarterback’s day. Simpson is a little miffed about the play call because the play-action roll put him squarely in Morgan’s path. Sensibly, he discards the ball rather than accepting a horrible sack on first down.
Simpson has to tackle the ball on third and sixth after a brief run off the right side. To keep the chains moving, the redshirt sophomore saw that Cole Adams and safety Brayson Hubbard matched up and hit Adams for a 20-yard throw. Simpson does an excellent job of giving himself enough room to make the first down throw and start his day by shifting about a little in the pocket.
Richard Young and Daniel Hill’s carries maintain offensive momentum and set up Simpson’s subsequent play from first and ten. Simpson would like to get this incompletion back because, in all honesty, he left a respectable pocket and fired a pass that was potentially intercepted. Simpson steps up into the pocket in response to the edge pressure, but this overstep puts him in further jeopardy. His miscalculation caused him to go out of the pocket, where he made matters worse by underthrowing his downfield target and failing to spot a safety scurrying into coverage.
On second down, he reads Qua Russaw perfectly, but his black jersey keeps him from gaining any yardage, setting up a third and six. With just three rushes by the Alabama defense, Simpson has plenty of time to choose where to throw the ball, and he makes a sound choice as he looks to locate Emmanuel Henderson. But Simpson’s pass is too high, and there’s a fourth down after the incomplete pass.
Danny Lewis Jr. was open for a ball from Simpson in a keyhole that separated Xavier Mincey and Jeremiah Alexander on a fourth down. His arm talent is on display as the key play results in a first down.
In the face of pressure, Simpson dumped a pass over to Daniel Hill, and he put together another solid play. The drive’s second play finds the quarterback in a difficult situation, but he overcomes it.
Four plays later, on a Richard Young toss sweep, the offense scored. Simpson successfully fielded an incorrect snap while still completing the pass to Young, setting him up for the offense’s second touchdown of the game.
Drive 2: 75 yards, 4 plays, touchdown
Kobe Prentice receives a great play-action pass from Simpson to start the next drive. Simpson corrects his error in the pocket on the previous drive and does a terrific job climbing the pocket to avoid the edge pressure. Once he’s back in a bit of a pocket, he stops rather than applying pressure and unloads on Prentice. Although Prentice could have avoided Keon Sabb with a little lower pass, the offense is currently gaining 25 yards thanks to a solid pitch and catch.
Jam Ty Simpson makes another smart read-option play as he leads the offense to the goal line after Miller breaks off a monster run. Although Simpson’s black jersey obstructs the play from happening, this is another example of him making the right choice and displaying some agility. The next play, Miller scored on a handoff, giving the offense a 31-0 lead.
Drive 3: Three plays, seven yards.
Kobe Prentice receives a check-down pass to start Simpson’s third drive. The development from the broadcast footage is hard to follow, but on the first play of the drive, Prentice is obviously Simpson’s third option, at best. On a second-down handoff, Richard Young gets blown up, forcing the offense to go to third and eighth.
Give the defense some credit; they played strong passing coverage on third and long, rushing only four. Simpson crawled out of the pocket because he had nowhere to put himself. Though he did an impressive job of finding Caleb Odom for a touchdown on the run, it was insufficient to keep the offense on the field and the chains moving.
Drive 4: 27 yards, 4 plays, punt
On the first play of the drive, Simpson found Germie Bernard for a 35-yard touchdown, his last connection of the day. With Simpson extending the play with his legs, the Crimson Tide defense stayed firm, allowing Bernard to move into an open area in zone coverage.
Tim Keenan nuked the Crimson Tide’s following play as he beat Joe Ionata for a sack. On second down, Simpson and his receiver were not in agreement, and the quarterback fired a pass that almost went out of bounds, setting up third and extremely long. The Alabama attack finished the day on a sour note when Simpson found Bernard on the outside for what should have been a completion, but the Washington transfer dropped it.
What many had speculated about the Crimson Tide offense in 2024 was confirmed by Alabama’s A-Day. The passing game will be wide open, get downhill, and test defenses vertically down the field. While the offense is still in its early stages under DeBoer, Simpson was able to successfully implement some of the downfield ideas, even if he only completed 58 percent of his throws that afternoon.
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