 He attended Western High School in Detroit.Simpkins enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1976 and played college football as an inside linebacker for coach Bo Schembechler's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1976 to 1979.Simpkins saw playing time as a freshman and won the John F. Maulbetsch Award in the spring of 1977, given each year by the University of Michigan after spring practice to a freshman football candidate on the basis of desire, character, capacity for leadership and future success both on and off the football field.