The scoreboard at SoFi Stadium told one story Saturday afternoon. Rams 34, Saints 0. For the Saints, there wasn’t much worth remembering about their second preseason game.
Back home in Jones County, though, there was a pretty good reason to keep watching. The Rams spent Saturday rotating two quarterbacks behind Matthew Stafford: Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson. One once spent a season playing football in Ellisville. The other has a family tree that runs directly through it.
More than 1,800 miles from Jones County, two very different football journeys with ties to the same small part of Mississippi crossed paths on an NFL sideline.
For Bennett, the Jones County connection is easy to trace. Before the national championships at Georgia, before the NFL Draft and before four seasons with the Rams, there was one season wearing No. 5 at what was then Jones College, coached by legendary Steve Buckley.
It has become almost a footnote in the Stetson Bennett story because of everything that happened afterward. It probably shouldn’t be. Bennett arrived in Ellisville in 2018 after spending his first season at Georgia as a walk-on and redshirting. He needed somewhere to actually play quarterback and Buckley gave him that opportunity.
He made the most of it. Bennett started all 12 games for the Bobcats and helped Jones finish 10-2, win the MACJC South Division and reach the state championship game. Jones eventually lost the championship to No. 1 East Mississippi, but Bennett and the Bobcats finished the season by beating Eastern Arizona 27-7 in the Mississippi Bowl at A.L. May Stadium in Perkinston.
His numbers were solid, Jones and Georgia’s biographies credit him with 1,840 passing yards and 16 touchdowns, along with 148 rushing yards and four more scores. But his best game probably came when Jones needed it most.
In the MACJC semifinals against No. 5 Northwest Mississippi, Bennett threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns as No. 6 Jones survived 36-34 in Ellisville. He also ran for 65 yards that afternoon. It sent the Bobcats into the state championship game and earned Bennett conference offensive player of the week honors.
Then he went back to Georgia. You probably know the rest.
Bennett went from former walk-on and junior college quarterback to one of the most recognizable players in college football. He eventually took control of Georgia’s offense and led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. His final college season ended with more than 4,100 passing yards, a perfect 15-0 record and another national championship.
Saturday afternoon, Bennett looked like the quarterback we saw in Ellisville in 2018 and the two national championships at Georgia. He played the first half against the Saints and completed 19 of 31 passes for 181 yards. The bigger damage came with his legs. Bennett ran for two touchdowns, including a scramble in the second quarter, and the Rams scored on four of the five series he directed before halftime. The Rams went to the locker room leading 20-0.
Sean McVay praised Bennett afterward for his command of the offense, his decision-making and his willingness to use his legs when plays broke down. Bennett said he feels more comfortable in the offense now than he has in previous preseasons.
For a guy who once needed Jones College simply to get meaningful snaps at quarterback, Bennett is now trying to establish himself as Stafford’s primary backup in Los Angeles.
Then came Ty Simpson.
Simpson didn’t enter the game until midway through the third quarter and didn’t have nearly the same opportunity. With the Rams already comfortably ahead, Simpson completed 8 of 12 passes for 73 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown or an interception, but helped operate an offense that eventually finished off the Saints 34-0.
Simpson’s Jones County connection isn’t that he played here.
It’s his dad.
Jason Simpson is an Ellisville native and a graduate of South Jones High School. Long before becoming one of the longest-tenured head coaches in college football at UT Martin, entering his 21st season in 2026. Simpson was a quarterback himself. He signed with Mississippi State and played football for the Bulldogs before eventually transferring to Southern Miss, where he became a two-time all-conference baseball player and team captain.
Ty Simpson grew up in Martin, TN, but a large part of the football education he received came from somebody raised in Jones County.
Jason has been the head coach at UT Martin since 2006. Ty practically grew up around the program. Stories from his childhood describe him hanging around UT Martin practices, throwing with college quarterbacks and even working out at the school’s facility before he was old enough to drive himself there legally.
That football upbringing eventually produced one of the country’s top quarterback recruits. Simpson signed with Alabama, waited behind other quarterbacks for three seasons and finally became the Crimson Tide starter in 2025. He threw for 3,567 yards with 28 touchdowns and just five interceptions while leading Alabama to an 11-4 season and the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The Rams then selected him 13th overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
When Simpson was asked before the draft about his first football jersey, his answer was Brett Favre. He talked about his dad being from Mississippi and playing at Southern Miss, and how that connection made Favre somebody he naturally gravitated toward growing up.
So there was something pretty interesting about Saturday’s quarterback rotation if you knew where to look.
Bennett is the guy who actually came through Ellisville. Simpson is the son of Ellisville. One needed Jones College to keep his career alive. The other grew up learning football from a South Jones product who turned coaching into his life’s work.
Their paths couldn’t have been much different. Bennett was overlooked, walked on, transferred to junior college, went back to Georgia and eventually became a two-time national champion. Simpson was a five-star recruit, went to Alabama, waited his turn, became the starter and was eventually selected in the first round.
Yet on Saturday afternoon inside one of the most modern and expensive stadiums in the world, both quarterbacks were wearing the same uniform. Ellisville isn’t exactly a place you’d expect to find represented twice in an NFL quarterback room in Los Angeles. Jones County has a population that wouldn’t even fill SoFi Stadium.
But for one afternoon, while the Rams were putting 34 points on the Saints, a small corner of the Pine Belt had a pretty noticeable presence in the middle of it all.
| STETSON BENNETT IV | TY SIMPSON |
|---|
| Jones County Connection | Played at Jones College in 2018 | Son of Ellisville native and former South Jones QB Jason Simpson |
| College | Jones College / Georgia | Alabama |
| Rams No. | #13 | #15 |
| NFL Experience | 4th season | Rookie |
| 2026 Draft | — | No. 13 overall |
| Preseason Record | Rams 2-0 | Rams 2-0 |
| Completions | 23 | 29 |
| Attempts | 37 | 37 |
| Completion % | 62.2% | 78.4% |
| Passing Yards | 219 | 263 |
| Passing TDs | 0 | 2 |
| Interceptions | 0 | 0 |
| Rushing TDs | 2 | 0 |
| Total TDs | 2 | 2 |
About The Author
