Former Alabama QB criticizes intriguing timing of quarterback change vs. ULM

Less than four minutes into the second quarter of Alabama’s home opener against ULM, Austin Mack came into the ball game and replaced Ty Simpson, the starter, for a drive.

This raised eyebrows of fans, the media and former players because the situation was not one a team would typically bring a backup quarterback into the game for. Simpson had only thrown nine passes, and Alabama led by 28.

Mack led the Crimson Tide offense down the field and scored a touchdown. Simpson was put back into the game for a few more drives until the game was significantly out of reach, but Alabama legend AJ McCarron was not a fan of this decision based on the circumstances of the game.

On The Coach JB Show with Big Smitty, McCarron questioned the Alabama staff for making this move when they did and asked why a starter was even named in the first place.

“I’m watching the game, and all of a sudden, we’re halfway into the second quarter and we take out Ty Simpson and put in Austin Mack who we brought from Washington last year, who’s the backup quarterback, and he runs in for a series,” McCarron said. “Well then, they put Ty back in, and the thing that makes me question this staff and coaches in general when they do this s— is why name a starter then or what’s the point of doing that? Saban did that for me a couple times throughout my career when I was the backup guy, and it was a two-minute situation in a game where we were already blowing them out in the first half, just because I was young and he wanted to see ‘Hey, how is he going to respond and play in a pressure moment of two-minute and how will he led this starting offense down the field.’ But, to take him out and put this in, when you do s— like this and you throw in a quarterback… even if you did tell the team, it’s easy to divide a locker room. For a team that’s already struggled Week 1, and now you throw the backup in.”

McCarron gave Mack his flowers after leading the offense to a touchdown, but he is questioning the move due to what it could do to the team, saying not everyone on a team is friends and that the most important thing is having people on the field who can do their job and win.

A situation that McCarron compared this to is what Colorado head coach Deion Sanders have been doing with their quarterbacks. Colorado named Kaidon Salter the starter at the beginning of the season and has been switching from him to Julian Lewis and even third-stringer Ryan Staub.

That has not gone well for Colorado. It’s a carousel in the early part of the 2025 season, and that is a recipe McCarron believes is not good for the team or Coach Prime.

Now granted, Alabama is not changing out three quarterbacks in close games, but McCarron’s concern is what Alabama and other teams with a plethora of talented quarterbacks like Colorado have been doing in practice and throughout the offseason.

“Austin played well,” McCarron said. “He took them down. They scored, but I just don’t understand it because you already named Ty the starter, and if you named a starter, you ride with him until you don’t want to ride with him anymore. I don’t understand throwing another kid in there… What are we putting these kids in? What situations are we just going through the motions in practice? It means me question these coaching staffs, and then people wonder why dudes are getting fired left and right. Hell, I don’t understand how you can go a whole offseason and not have an established starter and then ride with that dude until the wheels fall off or it goes really bad, and then you make a decision.”

McCarron did suggest that NIL and the transfer portal could be playing a part in why Alabama made the quarterback change vs. ULM, suggesting it was to possibly try to keep Mack happy so he doesn’t transfer at the end of the year.

It is unknown if Alabama will do the same thing with the quarterbacks against Wisconsin like they did last Saturday, but it is a Power 4 opponent, so there is not as much room for experiments like these, especially when the Badger defense has only allowed 10 points this year.