Advertisement
football Edit

'He's a stud': Why JT Daniels believes Bryce Young will succeed at Alabama

HOOVER, Ala. — The situation Bryce Young faces at Alabama this season isn’t foreign to the former five-star recruit. As Young steps into his first season behind center for the Crimson Tide, he’ll be replacing one of the best quarterbacks in program history. He’ll also be without the team’s top target from the year before.

Been there, done that.

During his junior season at California’s prestigious Mater Dei High School, Young took over for JT Daniels, who had led the Monarchs to a 15-0 record while completing 71.8 percent of his passes for 4,123 yards and 52 touchdowns the year before. Several of those passes were delivered to five-star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who followed Daniels to Southern California as part of the Trojans’ 2018 class.

The daunting task didn’t affect Young in the slightest. Then a junior, he filled in effortlessly for Daniels, passing for 3,846 yards and 39 touchdowns while leading Mater Dei to another state title. Young followed that up with an even better senior season, earning California’s Gatorade Football Player of the Year award while completing 72.6 percent of his passes for 4,528 yards and 58 touchdowns with just six interceptions to go with 357 yards and 10 more scores on the ground.

Fast forward two years and Young is once again tasked with stepping up behind center in an offense looking to reload from the year before. The situation is almost identical to the one the quarterback inherited at Mater Dei. Replace Daniels with Mac Jones, who earned the Davey O'Brien, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm and Manning awards. Instead of losing St. Brown, Young enters the season without Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith. If that wasn’t enough, Alabama is also replacing three starters from last season’s Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, including Outland Trophy winner Alex Leatherwood and Rimington Trophy winner Landon Dickerson.

How will Young respond this time? The quarterback he most recently replaced believes he’ll handle the challenge just fine.

“He’s a stud,” said Daniels, who is now the starting quarterback for Georgia. “He’s a star player. When I had left Mater Dei and they got Bryce — I had known Bryce since I was an eighth-grader and he was a seventh-grader. I knew back then he was a special player. When Mater Dei got him, I was really excited. I told MaxPreps that he would be the best quarterback in the country when he was a junior in high school, just because I had seen him play, and I knew he was a really good player. I expect a lot of success for Bryce.”

Young had mixed results playing exclusively in a mop-up role during his freshman season at Alabama last year, completing 13 of 22 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown. So far, life as a starter has treated him a bit better. The sophomore capped off a solid spring camp this year, earning MVP honors during the annual A-Day scrimmage, completing 25 of 44 passes for 333 yards and a 59-yard touchdown to tight end Cameron Latu.

Despite not yet having a start to his name at the college level, Young now finds himself as a favorite for this year’s Heisman Trophy as SuperBook Sports gave him the second-best odds for the award behind Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler. Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Young will make his first start for Alabama on Sept. 4 against Miami as the Crimson Tide opens up against the Hurricanes in the Chick-fil-A kickoff game inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“He’s a stud. And there’s no denying his pedigree, there’s no denying his physical attributes. The guy’s unbelievable,” former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy said ahead of SEC Media Days on Monday. “Can run around, can create, is accurate, and does a pretty good job of going through his progressions. You talk to anybody that was on that staff last year, they’ll tell you he has a really good foundational understanding of how to have his feet where they need to be, when they need to be there. So, he’s already far ahead of where he needs to be. But, here’s the but, until the lights are bright and it’s your gig, it’s still a little bit of an unknown.”

If history is any indication, Young will be just fine.

Advertisement

Stay at WestGate Condos during your stay in Tuscaloosa 

Learn more about WestGate at https://westgateal.com or call us at (855) 287-1318 to learn more!

Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young. Photo | USA Today
Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young. Photo | USA Today
Advertisement