Bryce Young had the look.
His father, Craig Young, knows it well. He’s seen it before. Several times in the life of the Alabama football quarterback, in fact. And it’s back this off-season.
“I can see that look in his eyes that motivated him so much,” Craig said.
It appeared whenever Young spent the duration of an off-season day throwing, training, and lifting weights. Not traveling or taking a lot of time. Just working.
“I’ve seen him do that before,” Craig said. “And I know what that means.”
Craig saw that in 2016 when his son looked to beat the reigning senior high school starter even though Young would only be a freshman in high school. The two quarterbacks split that year.
Then there was 2019. After throwing 39 touchdowns en route to state recognition as a junior, Young was keen to do even better. He ended up throwing 58 touchdowns and rushing for 10 in his senior year.
The look reappeared in 2021 as Young struggled to take advantage of open quarterback space in Alabama. In the end he won the Heisman Trophy.
“That,” Craig said, “sounds very familiar to me at the time.”
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Young enjoyed a season that ended in an 18-33 loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff Championship. It was only Young’s fifth loss in the last four seasons.
Now the rarely losing quarterback is tasked with reacting to his biggest loss yet.
“He’s hungry,” said Taylor Kelly, a longtime QB coach for Young. “It’s the hungriest I’ve ever seen.”
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Miniature golf and bowling
The young family competes in everything.
All.
Mini golf, bowling, board games. Even Uno. If there’s a way for the Youngs to keep up, they will.
Parents usually finish second and third behind their son.
“Bryce is better at everything,” Julie Young, his mother, said in New York before the Heisman ceremony. “It’s like one of those things where you just sit there and say, ‘Really? For real?'”
“It’s so annoying,” Craig added. “So annoying.”
Young usually won especially as he entered his teens and high school years.
“But if he lost miniature golf or bowling, he would be so angry,” Craig said. “He didn’t even want to talk to us. He would be mad on the car ride home.”
Then Young would usually get over it in the morning.
His disdain for losing hasn’t changed. The difference is in how he reacts.
“I think maturity comes from using what’s happening to not let things go in your favor,” Craig said. “How do you see these things objectively? And then how do you make adjustments? And how do you use that to improve? I think that’s his maturity because I think he’s done a really good job of being motivated from within.
No time travel
The first feeling Young experienced after the national championship was hurt. Then came the anger.
To himself.
“You look back and wish you could have had backing tracks, moments back,” Young said in the spring.
He immediately watched the film to process everything. Then in the spring he watched again. A few other times he said he watched it for self-exploration purposes.
“You can’t travel through time,” Young said, “so what am I supposed to do to get better, to learn from these mistakes?” It was really a process of turning that page for me and not looking at it the way you want it back, but, ‘Alright, I did that. That was unsuccessful. What can I do to grow?’”
Meanwhile, in the early aftermath of the loss, his parents gave him the space he needed. That’s their protocol, whether it’s the national championship or bowling.
Young doesn’t want hugs or Attaboys, his father said, but his parents will text him, send scriptures, and tell him they love him.
Once Young has gone through his process alone, he and his parents talk and go through it together. Craig and Julie gave him the time and space he needed in January.
“The process was probably pretty familiar, but I think just the scale of it is different,” Craig said. “It sucks in the short part of it. He hates losing.”
Rather than moping or sulking, Young channeled that disdain for losing. He had to work.
“This year was a little different”
Many days in May looked similar to Young.
The Alabama quarterback, who was staying in Orange County, California, started the day lifting weights. Young then drove 10-15 minutes to a secluded grass field in Huntington Beach, just off Interstate 405. There, Young worked with Kelly, a quarterback coach at 3DQB, who played the position for Arizona State. Kelly has worked with Young since he was in eighth grade.
After the May sessions with Kelly and others, Young would end up doing speed and agility work. He completed this routine in his free time in May three to four days a week.
“The way he approaches training and training in the off-season is at a high level,” Kelly said. “But this year has been a little bit different in terms of some specific things that he was keen to achieve this offseason.”
Positioning was an area Young worked on. This can mean positioning his feet, his head, or any other part of his body. Maybe his feet were slightly out of place in one game, or his head slipped slightly in another snap. Small and barely noticeable to the untrained eye, but sometimes vital.
“He would almost make up for it just because he was so talented,” Kelly said. “But there are times when it didn’t work out.”
So Young and Kelly worked to cap those times for the 2022 season.
Sometimes they had help. Alabama-based Per Kelly’s teammates who came to practice with Young included new wide receivers Tyler Harrell and Jermaine Burton, as well as Christian Leary and tight end Cameron Latu. This is the first time Kelly can remember Young bringing in recipients.
It’s part of Young’s effort to do more than just prepare for the season. The returning captain must prepare for a national championship in what will likely be his final collegiate season.
“Although he’s received many personal awards this year,” Kelly said, “I think he’s even hungrier to get the ones he really wants.”
Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men’s basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @_NickKelly