Quarterbacks Ty Simpson and Joey Aguilar are statistically two of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, and all of college football. Across the board, passing yards, passing touchdowns and completion percentage for both quarterbacks are among the best through the first six games of the 2025 season.
Passing statistics
Aguilar is ranked No. 1 in passing yards in the SEC and No. 14 in college football in total passing yards for the 2025 season with 1,680 yards.
Simpson is right behind him in both the SEC and college football standings, sitting at No. 2 and No. 15, respectively. He has 1,678 yards this season, including two games of over 300 passing yards.
For passing touchdowns, both quarterbacks are again Top 15 in college football and Top 5 in the SEC.
Aguilar has 14 passing touchdowns this season, tied with Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia for second in the SEC rankings. In college football, he sits at No. 12, tied with five other quarterbacks.
Simpson is the SEC leader in passing touchdowns with 16 on the season. In college football, he sits at No. 5 in the rankings, tied with Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola.
Accuracy
Aguilar is ranked No. 9 in the SEC with a 64.8% completion percentage and sits at No. 57 in the rankings for all of college football. Simpson is ranked No. 3 in the SEC with a 70.9% completion percentage, while standing at No. 16 overall.
“I don’t think anybody in college football anticipates as well as he does and layers the football, which means throws it up and over linebackers into the second level with accuracy in tight windows,” Jordan Rodgers, an ESPN analyst, said.
Interceptions
Aguilar has five interceptions on the season, including four out of five coming against SEC opponents, Mississippi State and Georgia.
“For us, our motto in the quarterback room is we’re going to play extremely aggressive, but we’re not going to be reckless,” Joey Halzle, the Volunteers’ offensive coordinator, said. “We have to be aggressive. You can’t worry about making mistakes. You’ve got to go cut it loose, but that doesn’t mean we just throw the ball up.”
The offensive coordinator’s vision for his quarterbacks seems to be to let the ball fly through the air, making aggressive throws, rather than playing scared. However, as Halzle noted, the ball can’t just be “thrown up,” Aguilar will need to be more careful with his throws if he wants to beat Alabama on Saturday, especially against this year’s Crimson Tide defense that is coming off of two straight SEC games where it caused the opposing quarterback to throw at least one interception.
Simpson only has one interception on the season, which was against Vanderbilt. His ball security could will the Crimson Tide to victory because attempting 189 passes is obviously very efficient.
Depending on how each defense prepares for Saturday’s game, and the fact that the SEC games for both teams have had close scores, interceptions could be a huge turning point in the game. Overall, the ball security sets these two similarly talented quarterbacks apart.
