Ty Simpson’s persistence was forged in a small tree stand on a cold morning in Tennessee. Perched 30 feet from the ground, the then-7-year-old Simpson sat silently with his father, waiting for his writ of passage into manhood.

Minutes rolled into hours as the two gazed forward, doing their best to will a deer into their path. Each gust of wind tested their patience, serving as an invitation to climb back down and pack up the truck.

Simpson never wavered.

“It was freezing cold,” Simpson’s father Jason recalled. “To be honest with you, I was about ready to call it and go home. But Ty didn’t complain once. I remember him sitting up there for hours, not asking for my phone or wondering when we were going to leave. He was just focused on being prepared for when he got that opportunity.”

When that moment arrived, Simpson was ready. Picking up his rifle, the patient young boy steadied himself, pulled the trigger and dropped his first deer from roughly 150 yards out.

That display of discipline was one of a handful of early signs foreshadowing Simpson's patient road at Alabama. Fifteen years later, the redshirt junior now finds himself coming off another long wait.

After signing with the Crimson Tide as the No. 3 pro-style quarterback in the 2022 class, Simpson served in a backup role to Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe over the past three seasons. He stuck around after Milroe beat him out for the starting job in 2023 and remained rooted in Tuscaloosa following Nick Saban’s retirement last year.

Now in his fourth season, Simpson enters the spring poised to step into Alabama’s starting quarterback role. Those familiar with the Martin, Tennessee native expect him to be ready for his shot.

Julie Simpson is still haunted by the incessant quacking sounds that rang out around her house for months.

It all started with a trip to Final Flight Outfitters, a duck-hunting Mecca of sorts 20 miles away from the Simpsons’ home. While sorting through supplies, Jason had lost track of then-10-year-old Ty, who had wandered off in the store. After a quick search, he found his son chatting it up with co-owner Kelley Powers, a duck-calling champion and member of the Legend of the Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Powers had been instructing Ty on the art of duck-calling, a skill the young boy would spend the next few months refining — much to the chagrin of his mother.

“We heard that duck call all day,” Julie recalled. “It drove me nuts.”

Ty’s constant quacking was motivated by his desire to take on a leading role. Mastering the call meant he’d earn the trust of the elders in his hunting group, who eventually allowed him to bring in ducks during future outings.

Competitiveness and a streak of perfectionism also played a role. In Jason’s words, Ty has a bit of an “obsessive personality.” That’s evident in all of his passions, from football and hunting to his work behind a grill.

When Bucky Haskins isn’t receiving highlights and practice film from Ty, he’s usually being sent pictures of steaks. Haskins is Ty’s former athletic director at Westview High School and a family friend of the Simpsons. During trips to Tuscaloosa, he and his family know that at least one of their meals will come from a group grill session with Ty taking on a starting role.

“He loves to cook,” Haskins said. “That’s actually the thing we talk about most on the phone. He’ll text me all the time asking me stuff like, ‘How long do you cook your steaks if you’re going to let them rest for 10 minutes?’ I have all the pictures of the bacon-wrapped steaks he’s grilled up for the linemen. He takes a lot of pride in that to the point where he becomes a perfectionist.

“Once he gets his mind on something, he gets a little bit obsessed with it.”

Fortunately for Alabama, it’s the same way with football.

Jason serves as the head coach of Tennessee-Martin, which naturally led to Ty growing up around the game. If Ty wasn't following his father to the practice field or film room, you'd typically find him drawing up plays on his own.

“He had his own little grease board, drawing up plays in middle school and high school,” Jason said. “That carried over to Alabama, just with him drawing things up and memorizing his formations and those kinds of things. When it comes to all that, he’s kind of obsessive.”

Ty signed with Alabama as the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year. During his senior season, he led Westview to a 2A state championship, throwing for 2,827 yards and 41 touchdowns while rushing for 862 yards and 11 more scores on the ground. He’s managed just a fraction of that production during his three years at Alabama, primarily coming in to hand the ball off in mop-up duty of blowout games.

The casual Tide fan might know Ty best from an embarrassing error he made during his redshirt freshman season two years ago. The play should be the biggest of his career but instead has become the butt of the joke in his family group text.

Flushed out of the pocket during an appearance against Tennessee-Chatanooga, Ty eyed a patch of open field to his left and scrambled 79 yards down the sideline to the end zone. The only problem was he mistakenly dropped the ball at the 1-yard line, costing himself a touchdown and forcing Alabama to run another play before finding the end zone.

The lapse in focus led to a Nick Saban butt-chewing and some relentless ribbing from friends and family. However, it didn’t keep Ty down for long. Despite his obsessive nature, you’ll seldom find the quarterback sulking over his mistakes.

“It’s a learning moment,” Ty said with a smile later that season. “I won’t do it again. I promise you that.”

Truth be told, that might not even be the most embarrassing moment in Ty’s playing career.

Haskins still shakes his head while recalling a play during Ty’s time on the basketball court early in his high school career.

Playing at rivals Union City, Ty found himself blocking out on defense under the opposing basket. Following a missed shot, he jumped up to grab the rebound with two hands before recording a put-back for two points.

Two Union City points.

To make matters worse, Ty didn’t initially realize he had scored on the wrong goal. Instead, he looked over toward the Union City student section before taking part in a celebration.

“When I tell you those students went nuts, they went nuts,” Haskins recalled. “They hounded him for it.”

Still, Ty ended up with the last laugh, as he shook off the embarrassment to help lead Westview to the win.

“He's a resilient little turd,” Haskins said with a laugh. “He’ll screw up, but it doesn’t get to him. He soaks it up like a man and then it’s like, ‘Let’s go get back to work.’”

Ty’s growth behind center isn’t measured by stats. For Jason, the biggest difference in his son’s development comes through their conversations.

During Ty’s freshman season, Jason would have to play translator, breaking down his advice into Alabama’s terminology. Those conversions are no longer necessary as Ty is now able to understand any concepts and coverages thrown his way.

“It’s two different languages we're speaking, but just through experiences and those quarterback meetings and reps, he’s able to recognize things a lot better now,” Jason said. “It’s like talking to a graduate assistant.”

That recognition has made its way onto the field as well.

While Ty hasn’t had many opportunities to show off his improvement during games, his progression as a passer has become more evident behind the scenes. David Morris can vouch for that.

Morris, the founder of QB Country, has been working with Ty since his junior year of high school. While Ty has always had a strong arm, the biggest difference Morris has seen from him lately has been his improved accuracy on short and intermediate throws. According to Morris, that has just as much to do with Ty’s improved touch as it does with his ability to anticipate plays before they happen.

“He’s throwing the ball before the receiver is open, just throwing him open instead of waiting for his man to beat the defender,” Morris said. “You can tell he’s more comfortable on the field, seeing things faster. He’s kind of in that place where he feels great and is comfortable to trust his mechanics and let it rip.”

Morris has helped produce a long list of established passers, from former Alabama stars AJ McCarron and Mac Jones to two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning. Ty reminds him of one of his more recent proteges, former Heisman finalist Bo Nix.

“They’re both really rangy, athletic,” Morris said. “Ty has speed, he’s quick, tough, big arm and is just competitive. His dad’s a football coach, so that knowledge of the game is there like it is with Bo. I think those two have a similar skill set.”

Alabama certainly wouldn’t mind Ty matching the 4,508 yards and nation-leading 45 touchdowns Nix recorded during his final season at Oregon in 2023. But before he can do that, the redshirt junior must lock down the starting job this spring by beating out former Washington transfer Austin Mack and five-star freshman Keelon Russell.

That won’t be easy, but when Ty sets his sights on a target he usually doesn’t miss.

“I think that he's in a position to have a ton of success this year,” Morris said. “And I think because of his patience, you’ll see a guy that looks like he’s started a lot of games instead of a guy that has been waiting around a couple years.”

Ty’s story at Alabama is an anomaly. Blue-chip quarterbacks don’t typically last this long on the bench.

Since Ty joined the Tide in 2022, three quarterbacks have transferred from the program. Eli Holstein (Pittsburgh) and Julian Sayin (Ohio State) left the program last year, while Dylan Lonergan made way for Boston College this offseason. Each member of that trio is younger than Ty, and only Sayin was higher-rated coming out of high school.

Best believe Simpson had plenty of suitors as well.

Due to Jason’s place in the coaching world, it isn’t hard for word to reach him about potential lucrative NIL offers should his son hit the transfer market. Some of those reached the high six-figure mark, and nearly all of them promised instant playing time with a new program.

“There’s been plenty of big opportunities for Ty to go to other places over the years,” Jason said. “He’d just tell me, ‘I don’t even want to know who it is. I’m good here.’ He never wavered. He had a plan and he stuck to it. I’m not surprised, but I am impressed.”

Waiting at Alabama hasn’t come without its frustrations. In his three seasons with the Tide, Ty has attempted just 50 passes, completing 39 of them for 381 yards over 16 appearances. He prepared each week as if he was going to be the starter only to spend most of his games on the sidelines.

Most figured Ty would hit the transfer portal after losing out to Milroe for the starting job in the fall of 2023. It was even more surprising that he stuck around last offseason following Milroe’s return and Saban’s retirement.

Then again, this is the same kid who sat patiently through the cold up in that deer stand all those years ago.

“I admire Ty,” Jason said. “I don’t know that I would have been strong enough with my convictions as he's been since he's been there. Now, don't get me wrong, he wanted to play and help his team out. But he had two pretty good players right in front of him with Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe. So it took him having confidence in himself, even when he wasn’t playing. And once again, I admire him for having the conviction to accomplish what he went there to do.”