Ty Simpson's name has been the hot favorite over Keelon Russell and Austin Mack ever since the Tide QB battle gained traction, gaining acknowledgement from head coach Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb previously.
Good thing for him is, Grubb is standing strong on his opinion on Simpson, doubling down on his preference of naming him Tide's next starter.
"He is. He is right now," Grubb told Tide 100.9's The Game host Ryan Fowler on Thursday when asked if Simpson would be the starter if the season started Saturday.
"We don’t really deal in absolutes until we have to, but I was trying to answer that as honestly as I could. I knew that people were looking for direction and, shoot, so are the guys in the room.
"Those were not surprising things. Those are things that we had already talked about with the guys. We had our post-spring evaluations done with the guys."
As an OC, Grubb emphasized the technicalities that separate Simpson from his QB competitors.
"Ty took care of the football better, he operated better. I thought he improved for an older quarterback – and I know young to playing or starting experience, but I thought for an older guy, especially towards the latter part of the spring, he really started to show more of those characteristics," Grubb said.
However, Grubb and DeBoer are not letting the cat out of the bag yet. Not so early, especially when they have the time till August to test them in every aspect.
"But we’re still going to let them compete. We still are right now. We will again in fall camp," Grubb said.
That said, Russell still has a shot at outshining Simpson.
And equally so, Simpson has a shot to to continue his dominance in the Tide's QB room.