Bryce Young strode into the media suite of Alabama’s Naylor Stone on Monday and wasted no time saying hello to local reporters present.
He said, reacting to the fact that reporters are now permitted to take part in live interviews “I missed you guys, man. It’s so much more personal now,” how is everyone? Is everyone good? Everyone has safe travels?”
In Tuscaloosa, it’s championship or bust. The SEC rules the day. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12 are trying to catch up. In Syracuse, a winning season would be reason enough for celebration. But at ‘Bama, anything less than a crystal trophy and confetti in January, and it’s back to the drawing board.
He was glad to meet with the media, but his joy on Monday stemmed more from the start of Alabama’s spring camp and NCAAF betting selections might just be including the player in their many odds ahead of potential games. It’s been a long offseason for him as the Heisman Trophy winner looks to get over the Crimson Tide’s unfortunate defeat to Georgia in January’s national championship contest.
Bryce Young has done his very best not to dwell on that situation. Initially he re-watched the defeat shortly after the match in order to process it better. Since then, he’s gone through just clips of the loss, only on a self-scouting basis.
Young disclosed, “It took a little bit, any time something like a national championship, something you work for doesn’t go your way, it hurts. For me, it was trying to transition from just the emotions of the game to the anger you feel in yourself.
“You look back and wish you could have had plays back, moments back. You kind of have to snap out of that and then this year it is what it is. You can’t time travel, so what am I going to do to improve to get better so I can learn from those mistakes. It’s really been a process of turning that page.”
He doesn’t have too many errors to fix from last season. The reigning Heisman winner set single-season records at Alabama with 4,872 passing yards and 47 over touchdowns. Still, junior rattled off a list of micro-errors he’s working on improving on over the coming months.
Coming into his second year as a starter in the team, he desires more control over the offense, which includes ensuring his colleagues are accounted for including clearing up his communication on pre-snap conversations. He also disclosed he’s spending extra hours with Alabama’s new receivers so as to improve his post-snap process.
He said, “There’s really a long list for me, I feel like there’s a lot of stuff once I’ve gone back, I’ve looked at the games. I feel like there’s a lot of stuff I feel like I can do better and want to improve on. I’m excited. We started last Friday, but now really getting into and starting the spring. I’m excited for me individually and the rest of the team as we all push forward.”
Young and the remainder of his Alabama colleagues don’t plan on forgetting the national championship defeat to Georgia anytime soon. Yesterday (Monday)surely won’t be the last time any player on the Crimson Tide is questioned about the loss.
Still, the familiar spring camp whistles go a long way toward blocking out any other undesired noise surrounding the program. For then in April, Alabama will be offered a clean slate. Its attention will be solely on the huge task at hand.
That’s exactly what has Bryce Young in a lively mood.
Young said, “For us, it’s how Coach Saban tells us every day is approach every day like it’s the biggest day and to not have too much of a look forward. You have to be where your feet are. For us, we’re not thinking about things down the road. We’re not thinking about things we can’t control.”
“For us, it’s about thinking about today. For me, how can I get better? How can we as a team get better today in this practice and lock into today’s meeting? We really have that approach about it, it being a day-by-day thing. We understand that if we listen to coaches and work as hard as we can everything can take care of itself.”
