Ty Simpson has his work cut out for him when Alabama faces top-ranked Indiana in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. But the Crimson Tide quarterback isn’t walking into Pasadena blind. He’s been here before. And the memory of how it ended last time is still fresh enough to sting. It was a 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan that added majorly to the factors ending Nick Saban’s coaching career and left the program reeling.​

Ty Simpson was on that field in January 2024, and he remembers every excruciating detail. “Growing up, playing in the Rose Bowl, it’s a dream come true. It’s such an honor because of the big-time game and the implications,” Simpson said on Saturday. “I was talking to [former Alabama cornerbacks] Terrion [Arnold] and Patrick Surtain on their podcast about this game, and just remembering, one, how it started. I think Caleb [Downs] got a pick, or something like that, something to where the momentum had shifted.”

Alabama had won 11 straight games heading into that matchup and was riding high after ending Georgia’s 29-game winning streak in the SEC Championship. The Tide jumped out to an early lead. And for a moment, it looked like they’d cruise to the national championship game. But as Ty Simpson recalls, the game slipped away in the most gut-wrenching fashion possible.​

“There were just key plays in the game to where we could’ve put the game away, but we didn’t,” Simpson said. “I remember that last play, and [us] getting stopped, and how Michigan rushed the field, and how we felt in the locker room. And just telling myself, ‘Hey, if we ever got [to] this place again, making sure that I do everything I can to make sure we don’t feel that way’.”

Now a redshirt junior and the full-time starter under Kalen DeBoer, Ty Simpson is channeling that pain into preparation. “That’s kinda the mindset going in, of making sure that I’m crossing every ‘T’ and dotting every ‘I’ of, I’m doing what I can to prepare like I’ve never won and perform like I’ve never lost,” he said. It’s a level of focus born from heartbreak, and it’s exactly what Alabama needs against a team that hasn’t lost all season.​

The 2024 Rose Bowl loss wasn’t just painful because of how it ended. It was painful because of how close Alabama came to finishing the job. The Wolverines tied the game at 20-20 with just 94 seconds left in regulation on a touchdown pass to Roman Wilson, forcing overtime. Michigan got the ball first in the extra period and scored a touchdown in just two plays. 

Simpson also doubled down on DeBoer’s ‘Alabama-centric’ mindset that has helped the team in limiting outside noise. “Nobody expected us to make it to the Rose Bowl, nobody expected us to make it to the Playoffs… Forget the world; it’s all about Alabama. That’s the mindset going in, and that’s going to be the mindset forevermore,” he said. Still, with the ghosts of last year’s Rose Bowl haunting him, Ty Simpson isn’t about to let history repeat itself. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. CT on New Year’s Day, and this time, Simpson intends to make sure Alabama is the team rushing the field when it’s over.​

The offensive coordinator’s seal of approval

Ryan Grubb was calling plays from the booth when the Tide clawed back from a 17-0 deficit to stun the Sooners 34-24. And while Simpson’s stat line (232 yards, two touchdowns, zero turnovers) was impressive, it was what happened between series that really caught Grubb’s attention. 

“Ty was, I thought, at his all-time best, in my opinion, just his resiliency on the sideline, his mindset, just the things he was saying in between series,” Grubb said. “There just was a belief that if I was down there playing with Ty, I would believe we’re gonna get this done.” That kind of quarterback energy is exactly what Alabama needs against a perfect Indiana team that hasn’t tasted defeat all season.​

What made the Oklahoma performance so special, according to Grubb, was that Simpson rediscovered the “let it rip” mentality that made him a Heisman Trophy favorite earlier in the season. “I think there was a mindset going into the game that was embedded in Ty,” Grubb explained. “I think it was one that you saw in the Georgia game earlier in the year and things like that, where there was a little bit of the ‘just let it rip’ mentality, not worrying so much about what’s going on around him or how this could affect anything else other than just playing.”

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For a 22-year-old carrying the weight of replacing Jalen Milroe, that mental freedom is easier said than done. Alabama might just have the quarterback play necessary to knock off the nation’s top-ranked team.​