Despite a top 10 ranking in both polls, the Alabama Crimson Tide don’t feel as scary to many teams without Nick Saban. Kalen DeBoer going 9-4 his first year with comparable talent, including a loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores, has many fans ready to write off the program already.

Pete Nakos of ON3 reporting that Ty Simpson has been named the starter to replace Jalen Milroe at quarterback doesn’t help matters. Simpson has been a bust since arriving in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and the Martin, Tenn., quarterback is certainly nowhere near as good as his five-star rating indicated.

Bama should still terrify the rest of the SEC with him behind center, though.

Lost on the DeBoer situation last year was the fact that Milroe, a first read and run quarterback, was never cut out to run DeBoer’s offense, an air raid that requires signal-callers to spread the ball across the whole field. Milroe wasn’t a fit for Tommy Rees’ offense in 2023 either, but the other pro-style quarterbacks weren’t good enough, including Simpson.

As a result, Saban took over the offense that year and willed the Alabama Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff with Milroe in what may have been his greatest coaching job ever. When DeBoer arrived, he had to start Milroe last year because of how the team gravitated toward him and stay afloat.

Now, Milroe is gone, and DeBoer’s OC from his days with the Washington Huskies, Ryan Grubb, is back. While Simpson may have been an overrated recruit, his style of play is perfect for what those two run, and he is good enough for his coaching to make him look like a Heisman contender the way Michael Penix Jr. did.

At 6’2″ 215 pounds, Simpson is a gunslingher who has the arm strength to do it. That’s a perfect fit for an offense that asks you to snap it from shotgun and fling it to one of four or five options quickly every play. It wasn’t a fit for Rees’ run-first, take care of the ball system that he brought to Bama.

When you consider an offensive line that should be way better with three returning starters, Ryan Williams’ potential at wide receiver with a year of experience now and the addition of Miami Hurricanes transfer receiver Isaiah Horton to allow Simpson options to spread the field, especially with Germie Bernard also back, this offense is set to explode. Nothing can stop them.

There’s also the fact that the Alabama Crimson Tide were undefeated at home last year under DeBoer, where they beat the Georgia Bulldogs and get rematches with Vanderbilt, the Tennessee Volunteers and the Oklahoma Sooners, their three regular season losses, this year. Don’t forget they lost the first two games by just one score.

The Vols laid the blueprint for how to shut down Milroe, which is the only reason OU beat them so handily. That blueprint won’t be there with Simpson. DeBoer’s past proves there is no blueprint to stop his offense, at least to this point. Perhaps teams at the SEC level will figure out how to slow it down, as they typically do, but not before he’s elite with it for a couple of years first.

Georgia is really the only tough road game for the Alabama Crimson Tide this year, unless you count the Auburn Tigers since the Iron Bowl is always a slugest at Jordan-Hare Stadium. No, the Florida State Seminoles aren’t a difficult opener. Taking all this into account, 10-2 should be a lock for Bama, and they likely will do better. Simpson will be elite.