The Alabama Crimson Tide football program held its first A-Day under new coach Kalen DeBoer this past Saturday, giving the public its first look at the new offensive and defensive philosophies being implemented at the Capstone.
The DeBoer offensive scheme gives a lot of responsibility to the quarterback but also enables its signal caller to shine by creating mismatches in the pass patterns leading to opportunities for explosive, momentum-building plays.Backup quarterback Ty Simpson performed well in front of the modest crowd inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The redshirt sophomore completed seven of his 12 passes for 102 yards while guiding the offense to two touchdown drives.
- The backup quarterback’s day started with a free rusher in his face off the edge as Red Morgan got into the backfield quickly. Simpson is a bit screwed by the play call as the play-action roll put him on a direct collision course with Morgan. He wisely throws the ball away instead of taking a bad sack on first down.
- A short run off the right side brings up third and six for Simpson to tackle. The redshirt sophomore recognized Cole Adams’s matchup with safety Brayson Hubbard and found him for a 20-yard completion to keep the chains moving. Simpson does a good job slightly shuffling in the pocket to give himself enough space to make the first down throw and get his day started.
- Carries by Richard Young and Daniel Hill keep the offense moving and set up Simpson’s next play from first and 10. This incompletion becomes a play Simpson would like to have back as he, arguably, left a decent pocket and threw a pass that could have been intercepted. We see Simpson react to the edge pressure by stepping up into the pocket, but its an overstep that takes him into more danger. His course correction took him out of the pocket where he compounds his problem by not recognizing a safety scrambling into coverage and under-throwing his downfield target.
- He correctly reads Qua Russaw on second down, but his black jersey prevents him from seeing how many yards he could run for, bringing up a third and six. The Alabama defense only rushed three, leaving Simpson plenty of time to decide where to throw the ball, and his decision is solid as he attempts to find Emmanuel Henderson. However, Simpson’s pass is too high resulting in an incompletion and a fourth down.
- Simpson fit his fourth down pass to Danny Lewis Jr. into a keyhole in between Jeremiah Alexander and Xavier Mincey. It’s a glimpse of his arm talent as the decisive choice leads to a first down.
- He strings together another good play as Simpson dumped a pass off to Daniel Hill in the face of pressure. It’s the second play of the drive where the quarterback’s been put into a bad spot but made the best of it.
- The offense scored four plays later on a Richard Young toss sweep. Simpson did a good job fielding an errant snap and still executing the toss to Young, putting him on the path to the endzone for the offense’s second score of the day.
Drive 2: 4 plays | 75 yards – Touchdown
- Simpson’s next drive opens up with a really strong play-action pass to Kobe Prentice. Simpson does a good job climbing the pocket to avoid the edge pressure and improves on his mistake in the pocket on the previous drive. Instead of moving into pressure, he pauses once he’s back in a bit of a pocket and unloads to Prentice. The pass could have been a little lower to help Prentice avoid Keon Sabb, but at this stage of the game, it’s a strong pitch and catch as the offense gains 25 yards.
- Jam Miller breaks off a huge run to take the offense to the goal line where Ty Simpson makes another good decision on a read-option. His black jersey prevents the play from unfolding, but its another instance where Simpson makes the right decision and shows a hint of his athleticism. Miller scored on a handoff on the next play, putting the offense ahead 31-0.
