In an era where quarterbacks transferring schools has run amok, Ty Simpson is, was, and will always be a Bama man.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the last jersey I wanted to wear in college was the Alabama Crimson Tide jersey,” Simpson said in a interview with AL.com this week. “I came there. I stayed there.”
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His father, UT Martin head coach Jason Simpson, indicated that power four programs were interested in signing his son at the time of his draft declaration. However, the QB has said that he never seriously considered playing for anyone other than the Crimson Tide. He believes that doing so would have tarnished his legacy in Tuscaloosa.
“The last thing I wanted to do was tarnish my legacy and go somewhere else where I didn’t go out of high school and I didn’t want to play,” Simpson said in the same interview. “…Hopefully in the draft whenever my name gets written on a card, they write the University of Alabama on there. It’s going to give me great pride.”
Where Simpson goes in the first round remains to be seen. He’ll likely be the second QB off-the-boards, after Fernando Mendoza, so he might go as high as somewhere in the top ten. Or he could slide to the later part of the first round. No matter what happens, it seems like he made the right call in going fully professional; instead of playing semi-pro ball for another year, at a different university.
More importantly, he knows he made the best decision for himself, and that is clearly conveyed in the AL.com interview. When Oregon Ducks QB Dante Moore turned down the NFL money to stay in Eugene another year, it really opened up the “Enter the Draft vs. Staying in School” debate.
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The lucrative NIL deals that high profile star quarterbacks receive these days has truly turned the game on its head.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: Ty Simpson chose the NFL Draft over going to another program