Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton face off in SEC title game

The road to the 2025 SEC championship required patience for Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton. Both have been crowned conference champions in past seasons, but this year, they enter the game with a different kind of spotlight, one that belongs to a starting quarterback in the Southeastern Conference.

Title game action is not completely uncharted waters for Stockton, who was thrown into the SEC championship against Texas last year after Carson Beck went down with a torn UCL. It’s new ground for Simpson, however, who sat behind Jalen Milroe for three years before stepping into the prestigious role of the Crimson Tide’s next starting signal-caller in 2025.

In an era when the transfer portal can offer a fast pass to the starting lineup elsewhere, Simpson and Stockton opted to wait in line. Saturday, one of them will cap their first season as a starter with an SEC title.

Simpson’s production has been consistent with minimal turnovers since the start of the season, but a Week 1 loss to Florida State prevented him from gaining national attention until Alabama’s success became hard to ignore. Simpson finished the regular season with 3,056 passing yards and 25 touchdowns. He added 126 rushing yards and two touchdowns on foot.

The Alabama quarterback reflected on his growth this season ahead of the biggest game of his career.

“I think it goes back all the way from Florida State to now,” Simpson said on Monday. “Everything that you go through, everything that you experience, is just another thing that you can learn from. That’s why I’m just appreciative of the growth in my journey of being here.”

Stockton’s journey shares similarities. After two seasons under Stetson Bennett and a 2024 regular season behind Beck, Stockton’s performance in the SEC championship game turned heads and set him up for the starting nod in 2025 after Beck transferred to Miami.

His first season leading the Bulldogs was an undeniable success. Stockton led Georgia to an 11-1 record with 2,535 yards and 20 touchdowns in the air and 403 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.

But he’s 0-1 against Simpson. In late September, the Bulldogs’ 33-game home win streak ended with a 24-21 loss to Alabama.

Stockton thinks it was a turning point in the season for the team, which went on to win the last nine games and finish the regular season as the highest-ranked SEC team in the College Football Playoff rankings and the AP Top 25.

“After the Bama game, our offense and team have grown up a bunch,” Stockton said. “We’ve just been playing pretty good football. We came closer together.”

Approaching the one-year anniversary of being thrust into the action, Stockton recalls relentless film study to stay prepared, all on the slight chance he could see time.

“Last year it was crazy,” he said. “I was preparing each week like I was a starter, just trying to watch a lot of film and be ready. It was hard the whole year just having to make myself watch film through each week, not playing. Then, when the time came, I was ready. I was excited just to go play with my teammates.”

This year, he knows what to expect.

“Now, as the starter, it’s a different mindset of leading the team.”

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