Ryan Grubb Calls Alabama Quarterback Performance 'Selfless'

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- No. 10 Alabama defeated Eastern Illinois 56-0 in the Crimson Tide's annual November cupcake matchup. The program got an opportunity to play a myriad of players, both scholarship and walk-on to celebrate the last regular season game in Bryant-Denny Stadium and honor its seniors.

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson only played on half of football, leaving the game with a 28-0 halftime lead, but the signal-caller had a few bumps in his final home performance of the season. Simpson completed 11-of-16 passes for 147 yards and threw two interceptions, with a third pass nearly intercepted, but the Crimson Tide starter also saw an easy touchdown pass dropped by Ryan Williams.

Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was complimentary of Simpson's performance despite the mistakes, calling his end of half interception a selfless play due to the time on the clock and situation at hand.

"I think he had one that he wanted back," Grubb said. "Obviously, the interception at the end of the half shows the kind of player Ty is. He’s selfless, asking for the ball in a 50/50 situation. A guy who is worried about stats wouldn’t have done that for the team. So don’t worry about that one. The layered ball on the two throw, it just needed a little bit more air on it, honestly. He just underestimated how deep that guy was and Ty makes that throw as good as anyone in the country. Certainly knows he could have waited to the next window or layer that. But I thought he had good command early in the series, had a couple of good run checks, had box counts where we needed it to be. I was happy with where he’s at and he did a good job, a great job, honestly, of supporting Austin [Mack] and Keelon [Russell] when he was out.

"I was just making sure. I wanted to give a shoutout to my guy. He had one to Lotty [Brooks], that’s correct. He had a sideline throw available to Ryan [Williams] that he could have made. Little bit of miscommunication between him and Lotzeir. He definitely didn’t want to force that one on the inside, you’re correct.”

Simpson's had three interceptions in the last two games to take his total up to four for the season, going along with five lost fumbles. He faces an Auburn defense that's forced 17 takeaways this season in a game that Alabama must win to go to the SEC Championship and keep its post season dreams alive.