Don’t be fooled by the five-star ranking — this was never going to be easy.

Bryce Young arrived at Alabama last year carrying the hype that comes with being the top-rated quarterback in his class. A stellar senior season at California’s prestigious Mater Dei High School had seen him pile up 4,885 total yards and 68 touchdowns. Highlights of the dual-threat quarterback weaving his way through defenders in the pocket made it easy to project he’d have no issues instantly carrying over that success at the next level.

However, as Alabama’s offense went about rewriting the record books last season, Young was more often than not left holding the clipboard on the sideline. In total, the freshman quarterback attempted just 22 passes, completing 13 of them for 156 yards and a touchdown.

Heading into Year 2, the narrative surrounding Young has begun to shift ever so slightly. After initially cloaking him in an aura of infallibility, the most fickle of Alabama’s fanbase have started to pick at the potential cracks in his armor.

Young’s limited opportunities led to a series of frustrating errors last season. Often inserted into predictable situations late during blowouts, the freshman quarterback had a tendency of holding onto the ball too long in search of a big play — a fault that resulted in him taking six sacks while coughing up the football two times over 114 snaps.

As Young readies himself for his first season as a starter, there’s also a bit of concern about his slight stature. Listed at 6-foot, 194 pounds, he has a drastically different build than his beefier predecessors at the position in Mac Jones (6-3, 214), Tua Tagovailoa (6-1, 218) and Jalen Hurts (6-2, 218).

Although, amidst the creeping doubt, Young finds himself in a familiar place.

“I think we’re more comfortable like this,” Young’s father Craig told BamaInsider. “It’s really more about ignoring the outside noise and just having fun and playing football. At the end of the day, it’s football, it’s supposed to be fun. Bryce just plays football and believes in his talent. At the end of the day, at every stage, he has always endured.”

None of this is new for Young. The 19-year-old phenom is already well-versed in handling hype and has made a career of proving doubters wrong. He even has experience following a record-setting quarterback.

As Young looks to replace Jones at Alabama, his current situation is not unlike his first year at Mater Dei in 2018 when he took over the reins for JT Daniels.

Daniels, the No. 3 quarterback in the 2018 class behind Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, led Mater Dei to a 15-0 record in 2017 en route to being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year. That season, the talented pocket-passer completed 71.8 percent of his passes for 4,123 yards and 52 touchdowns while forming a partnership with five-star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, similar to the one Jones and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith shared at Alabama.

Replacing quarterbacks isn’t usually an issue for Mater Dei, which has produced several stars at the position, including Heisman winners Matt Leinart (2004) and John Huarte (1964). However, after Daniels announced his decision to reclassify and enter college early in 2018, the Monarchs were left a bit short-handed behind center.

Enter Young, whose playmaking ability had begun to raise eyebrows at Los Angeles’ Cathedral High School the previous two seasons. Following a sophomore campaign in which he threw for 3,431 yards and 41 touchdowns, Young elected to transfer to Mater Dei where he could prove his skills in Southern California’s elite Trinity League.

“I thought OK, well, he’s pretty damn good,” Mater Dei head coach Bruce Rollinson told BamaInsider. “From there it was all about shortening the learning curve and getting him ready for what we expect out of quarterbacks, especially elite quarterbacks.”

Young enrolled into Mater Dei during the January of his sophomore year, giving him the spring to learn the Monarchs’ system. However, that didn’t help ease the pressure during his debut season as he was tasked with leading an offense devoid of its two biggest stars from the year before.

“There were a lot of haters in the process when Bryce was doing what he was doing,” said Danny Hernandez, Young’s quarterback coach at Cathedral. “He was dominating the game over at Cathedral, but there were all these people saying, ‘Yeah, but that’s Division II. He wouldn’t have that same success if he was playing in the Trinity League.’ I always knew in the back of my mind, it didn’t matter where you put that kid, he was going to dominate.”

It took Young all of five games to silence his critics. Trailing No. 1 rated IMG Academy by three points late in the fourth quarter, the junior quarterback orchestrated a game-winning drive for Mater Dei, going 6-for-6 before running in a 6-yard touchdown with 1:09 remaining.

“Pretty much everybody was a believer after that,” Rollinson said, “including his head coach.”

From there, Young continued to fill in effortlessly for Daniels, passing for 3,846 yards and 39 touchdowns while leading Mater Dei to the state title.

“I think Bryce is a very rare talent in that he thrives under pressure,” Young’s long-time trainer Chris Flores told BamaInsider. “They say pressure makes diamonds or bursts pipes. He’s definitely one of those guys who turns into a diamond when the pressure’s on. It’s almost like he gets a little bit taller and his shoulders stand up. He showcases what he’s really about in the most crucial moments.”

Before the fame and five-star status, Young’s collegiate career was kickstarted by a five-minute highlight video. The compilation of passes, footwork drills and in-game highlights was put together by Hernandez, who served as Young’s personal quarterback coach before working with him at Cathedral.

“Looking at it now, I feel like it’s outdated,” Hernandez said with a laugh. “But at the time it was a really good video. I just wanted to show off that he was really well-rounded.”

The intention was to get the word out on the blossoming eighth-grader by sending out the video to various college coaches. Little did Hernandez know, he’d get his first bite almost instantaneously.

“It was funny because the next morning I ended up getting a text at around 6 a.m. my time,” Hernandez recalled. “It said, ‘Man, this kid is great. How many offers does he have?’”

That text came from Kliff Kingsbury.

The then-Texas Tech head coach explained that he couldn’t offer Young until he saw him in person. However, he assured Hernandez that if the 14-year-old could replicate what he showed on tape during a visit, it would go a long way. From there Young and his father made the trip to Lubbock, Texas. The rest is history.

“Kliff ended up texting me probably 30 minutes into the workout like, ‘Hey man, I pulled the trigger on your kid. He’s as good as advertised,” Hernandez recalled. “I still have the voicemail saved of Bryce and Craig walking to the car after him getting his first offer.”

Typically when a recruit receives an early offer from a Power Five school, it is followed by interest from several other top programs. However, with Young, that wasn’t the case.

The quarterback’s next offer didn't come until six months later when Nebraska came calling. From there, it was three more months until Hawaii and Louisville joined the fold.

While Young’s talent was apparent, his 5-foot-9, 165-pound frame at the time was a bit of a tough sell to college coaches who were concerned about how he’d progress physically over the next few years.

Hernandez said he tried to pitch Young based on his mobility and ability to throw off of multiple platforms. However, few coaches were as bullish as Kingsbury early on. As far as Hernandez was concerned that was their loss.

The quarterback coach still has a running joke with Indiana offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, who shied away from offering Young due to his size back in 2017.

“I’ll ask him, ‘Hey man, you still thinking about putting that offer out for Bryce or is he still a little too small for you?’” Hernandez said with a chuckle. “We’ll joke about it, and he’ll tell me, ‘You’re never going to let me live that one down.’”

Coaches weren’t the only ones who were hard to convince. While Young was always a decently-rated prospect, he didn’t crack the top 50 of the Rivals rankings until the December of his senior season.

“It was always about size,” Rivals national recruiting director Mike Farrell said. “We saw Bryce at regional camps. We saw him at the five-star challenge. He struggled a bit at the five-star challenge as a rising junior and he’s not a physically imposing kid, so we struggled with that initially.”

Like Sheridan, Farrell jokes that he has received a fair amount of flak for his reluctance to pull the trigger on Young.

“I’ve learned the hard way,” he said, “the more people say negatively about Bryce the better he’s going to be.”

Entering his first spring camp at Alabama, Young will need to prove himself once again as he attempts to lock down the starting job while acclimating into first-year offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien’s system.

While outgoing coordinator Steve Sarkisian was a big reason for Young’s decision to join the Tide, Craig said his son is optimistic about developing under O’Brien’s guidance. In fact, Young grew up admiring Deshaun Watson’s game and often studied the Pro Bowl quarterback in O’Brien’s offenses with the Houston Texans over the past four seasons.

“Just look at his track record,” Craig said. “Just like Sark, he’s developed every type of quarterback, from [Tom] Brady, who is a more traditional pocket-style quarterback to Deshaun Watson and everything in between. Only at Alabama can you lose a quality offensive coordinator like Sark and replace him with an NFL head coach.”

While Young should provide O’Brien with a similar dual-threat skill set to Watson’s, the sophomore quarterback has more often been compared to a different Pro Bowler in Kyler Murray. Like Young, Murray, 5-foot-10, 207 pounds, overcame his slight build due to his big arm and elite escapability in the pocket.

“I think Bryce is a better passer than Kyler Murray, but I don’t think he’s as fast,” Farrell said. “Kyler Murray is one of the fastest quarterbacks you’re going to see, just a blur. Bryce isn’t a blur, but he’s very quick and savvy and smart and can make people miss. As a true pocket passer, I think Bryce is more refined at the same stage.”

Farrell lists Young as one of his biggest breakout candidates this year, stating that his humbling first season should only set him up for future success. After all, Young has built his career on moments like this.

“This is dangerous for college football,” Farrell said. “When that kid’s fire is lit, he’s going to destroy you.”