The Alabama Crimson Tide is just days away from the start of the 2025 season as the team gets ready to head to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles.

Perhaps the biggest spotlight on the field is going to be on the quarterback position as program veteran Ty Simpson prepares to make his first real career debut after three years as a backup QB on the bench.

Given that the offense has struggled with consistency in the passing game for the last two years, the anticipation for Simpson is high among the fanbase.

Simpson is going to be feeling a lot of pressure to get the job done and prove why he won the job and why he should be the man for the position all year long.

However, he cannot let that pressure get to him and impact the way he makes decisions. With a tremendous defense and group of pass catchers around him, Simpson simply needs to just play his game, play smart, make the plays and avoid turnovers.

AJ McCarron, who won two national titles at Alabama from doing just that, offered timely advice to Simpson on the latest episode of “The Dynasty” podcast.

“My mindset for him would be the same mindset I had going into my first year of starting,” Tide legend AJ McCarron said.

“You have an experienced defense, right? The team is expecting a lot out of the defense. Let them control a lot of the game. Your biggest thing right now, especially in your first start, is come out, take care of the football, just don’t do anything crazy and play out of yourself from a sense of making mistakes and hurting the team.”

McCarron even shared some insight as to what it was like preparing for games right before he took over the job and revealed the approach from former offensive coordinator Jim McElwain.

“Jim McElwain used to say it all the time: ‘Touchdowns, checkdowns, take what the defense gives us, and eventually, they will give us the game.’ And I kind of lived by that my first year because I knew, hey, if you just take care of the ball, whether each possession ends on a kick, whether it’s a field goal or a punt, you’ve done your job for the most part right there because you’re at least giving your team a chance to rebound and bounce back some sort of way.”

If Simpson can play a similar style to what McCarron was able to do — Alabama is going to have a great shot this season.