Bryce Young Ready to Turn the Page Following Alabama's National Championship Game Defeat
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Bryce Young eagerly strode into Alabama’s Naylor Stone Media Suite on Monday and wasted no time greeting local reporters.
“I missed you guys, man. It’s so much more personal now,” he said, commenting on the fact that reporters are now allowed to participate in live interviews. “How is everyone? Is everyone good? Everyone have safe travels?”
Young was happy to meet with the media, but his excitement Monday stemmed more from the resumption of Alabama’s spring camp. It’s been a long offseason for the Heisman Trophy winner as he looks to get over the Crimson Tide’s disappointing loss to Georgia in January’s national championship game.
Young has done his best not to dwell on that moment. He initially rewatched the loss shortly after the game in order to better process it. Since then, he’s only gone through clips of it, on a self-scouting basis.
“It took a little bit,” Young said. “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 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.”
Young doesn’t have too many mistakes to fix from last year. The reigning Heisman winner set Alabama single-season records single-season records with 4,872 passing yards and 47 touchdowns. Still, junior rattled off a laundry list of micro-corrections he’s working on over the coming months.
Heading into his second season as a starter, he wants more control over the offense. That includes making sure his teammates are accounted for as well as clearing up his communication on pre-snap calls. Young also said he’s spending extra time with Alabama’s new receivers in order to improve his post-snap process and get a better feel for reads and progressions.
“There’s really a long list for me,” Young said. "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 rest of his Alabama teammates don’t plan on forgetting the national championship loss to Georgia anytime soon. Monday most definitely won’t be the last time anyone on the Crimson Tide is asked about the defeat.
Still, the familiar whistles of spring camp go a long way toward blocking out any other unwanted noise surrounding the program. For then next month, Alabama will be granted a clean slate. Its focus will be solely on the task at hand.
That’s what has Young in such a good mood.
“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.”
