Saturday night turned into a massive turnaround game for Kalen DeBoer’s Bama after starting off 2025 with an embarrassing loss to FSU. And this wasn’t just a usual face-off, it was a record-breaking one. As Crimson Tide handed fifth-ranked Georgia its first loss at their home, since 2019 in front of 93,033 hostile Dawgs fans. This snapped their home game win streak in the FBS of 33 straight wins. And at the heart of it all, there’s Ty Simpson, whose dominant passing game turned Alabama’s fate, giving them an early 14-0 advantage in the first half. Best part? Years of waiting finally met its happy ending, and Bama’s former OG Tyler Booker is right there to hype up his guy.

Even though Booker’s in the NFL right now, his ties with Ty Simpson are still solid. They came together in the 2022 class, but Booker saw immediate action, whereas Simpson waited for 2 long years, and now? He turned up the heat real quick against Kirby Smart’s squad as he completed 24 of 38 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns. Simpson also scored another touchdown with his legs. All of this made Tyler Booker hit X, praising his man: “Man, I’m so proud of Ty! He waited patiently for his opportunity, and he’s doing everything that we talked about doing since we came in as freshmen! I can’t wait to see what this team becomes!” This isn’t the first time Tyler Booker came in to support Ty Simpson.

Before the season started, Booker took to his Instagram and hyped up Simpson for finally starting as QB1. “We’ve been talking about this day for years, brother. Take advantage of this opportunity and leave it all out there! Love you, brother.” And that wait and preparation resulted in today’s success. Simpson had 111 yards in the first quarter alone, and even when Bama’s running backs didn’t have much room to move against Georgia’s defense, it was Simpson who threw quick short passes to allow Alabama to move the chains consistently.

And let’s not get started on his decision-making and how well Simpson identified the wide-open spaces in Georgia’s defense. That’s right, remember his second touchdown pass to Isaiah Horton? Where Simpson made a 6-yard throw but made multiple reads before making the actual one. Even Kalen DeBoer couldn’t hold back his praise for him. “I mean, it takes a lot of work when you get an environment like we had today. They can’t hear him. And you’ve got to make sure every word is heard, you know. And the effort that he put forth today, the energy he just showed in the locker room. Man, he’s given everything he has,” DeBoer said.

Kirby Smart’s big mistake against Bama

Despite Crimson Tide going scoreless in the second half, Smart’s team couldn’t capitalize on it and ended up with a 1-7 record against them since taking over in 2015. But it looks like Smart isn’t bothered about it. “I mean, what’s everybody else’s record against them? You got it?” Smart said postgame. “I don’t either. I don’t lose sleep over that because those games have been championship-caliber games. Even when we’ve played them in the regular season, they’ve been—I just saw 25 scouts out here. They’re all here to watch these teams play.”

But the big mistake came in the fourth quarter as Smart’s tough call may have cost Georgia the game. He chose to go for 4th-and-1 at Alabama’s 10-yard line instead of taking the opportunity of kicking a short field goal. And the result? It turned into a nightmare for them as Georgia got no points and ended up losing with a 3-point difference.

Everyone started pointing out the issue with the call, but despite that, Smart stayed firm in his decision and made his stance clear after the game. “We got it down to fourth-and-1, and that play has been really successful for us. I think we hit Tennessee on it three times for a conversion. We’d run it earlier in the night and run it for a conversion,” Smart said. “We missed a block that we got to make, and they ran through and made a great play to stop it. But I’d do that 10 out of 10 times in terms of going for it. The decision is whether you go for it with tempo or not. We felt like Tempo had been really good for us throughout the year.” This is a setback for Georgia, but there is still a lot of season left to play.