The Alabama Crimson Tide needs dynamic quarterback play with Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb in charge of the offense. It’s a system that’s going to embrace volume in the passing game, and whoever starts must be able to do a variety of things to strain opposing defenses.

Ty Simpson is Alabama’s starters, and while there were some rough moments in the season opener against Florida State, the redshirt junior bounced back in a major way in his second-career start. Against Louisiana-Monroe, Simpson finished a perfect 17-for-17 for 226 yards and three passing scores. He also added another touchdown on the ground while seeing a second called back due to penalty.

On Monday, Alabama held its weekly coaches press conference where the media was able to speak to DeBoer, Grubb and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack. While Grubb was speaking, he was asked which area did he see the most improvement from Simpson between his first and second starts. His answer was revealing.

Ryan Grubb on Ty Simpson

“Decision making,” Grubb said. “I thought he was extremely decisive. He was very dialed on his reads. He didn’t pass up open players. I thought he played great. I thought he was really, really into the game plan all week and I was really hopeful that he was gonna play very, very well.”

Notice what he said about Simpson not passing up open players. This is something Grubb had mentioned last week was an issue for the former five-star quarterback against Florida State, so this is obvious improvement for the signal-caller.

“Ty, he’d be the first one to tell you, progression discipline is a big thing for any quarterback,” Grubb said last Monday while speaking to the media. “I think when you get down in a football game, there sometimes can be the, ‘I want to make the big throw every time.’ There were some times there where certainly I know he wishes he would have just stayed with his first read and stayed within the progressions. So for him I think you have to just keep instilling that in practice, don’t pass on your number one, take that and just keep moving. That’s what we’ll do, we’ll keep working that with him.”

Soon after Alabama’s 73-0 win over Louisiana-Monroe, Simpson had mentioned that he had wanted Alabama’s coaching staff to coach him even harder following a rough performance against the Seminoles in Week 1. It’s something that Grubb and company had already expected to do, not just for Ty but everyone on the team.

“That’s not surprising. That’s something that Ty certainly shared with me as well,” Grubb said. “That was something I told him after the first game was, I told you everybody on the team’s got to look inward, what we can own. I thought maybe I wasn’t hard enough on Ty. I didn’t harden him enough for the moment in the first week and I told him I wouldn’t make that mistake again.”

Grubb on Austin Mack, Keelon Russell

Simpson wasn’t the only quarterback to play on Saturday night. Due to the extreme blowout, backups Austin Mack and Keelon Russell both got significant snaps. Obviously, Simpson saw the most action with 33 snaps, but wasn’t too far off with 26 and Russell got 13 of his own. Plus, the two combined for 16 pass attempts, and they completed 12 of them for 145 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. That was with Jack Sammarco dropping a pass from Russell in the fourth quarter too.

“I expected both of them to play well,” Grubb said of Mack and Russell. “They’ve done a lot of those same things in practice and leading to that moment. So I think you wanted to see how they perform in a stadium full of people and if they can make easy decisions. I think they both did a good job. Took care of the ball, didn’t put it in jeopardy, made some good decisions. Obviously both had success getting the ball in the end zone, so they did well.”