What does a player returning for his junior season who already has a Heisman trophy, sky-high draft stock, hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIL deals and a CFP national championship have left to play for?
Luckily for Alabama, it won’t have to find out.
Bryce Young has all of those things, including a national championship, but his ring came as a backup in 2020. With Young as the starter last season, Alabama fell short of a repeat, losing in the title game — to conference foe Georgia, no less.
For a player who already possesses an internal desire to be great, that was just extra fuel for his fire going into 2022.
“I think that’s something that obviously sticks with all of us,” Young said in an interview with For The Win about his new NIL partnership with Dr. Pepper. “Every year, when you’re that close to your goal and what you want to accomplish and you fall short, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But you have a set time to be emotional, to feel a way about it, then you have to flip the page and turn it into a learning experience and grow from it.
“Now that we know how that feels — me individually, us as a team — it’s something we never want to feel again. So it pushes us that way.”
Young likely would have been fine if the Crimson Tide had finished the job in January. The Heisman-winning quarterback doesn’t lack for motivation when it comes to being successful. It’s that same drive that allows him to block out the noise when it comes to expectations.
Alabama is a perennial favorite to win national championships, and this year is no different. The Tide enter the season as the country’s top-ranked team and have the shortest odds to win the College Football Playoff at +190 at Tipico Sportsbook. But for Young, the pressure is internal.
“I think there’s always pressure to win and be successful, but I don’t really think it comes from the external factors or the rankings or what other people say,” Young said. “It’s all about upholding that standard that we have for ourself. That standard is to do our best to be successful.”
The fans in Tuscaloosa also help uphold that standard. Young can see parallels between them and the fictional characters of Fansville, Dr. Pepper’s parody college football drama starring Young in the latest season.
“There’s definitely a similarity in both with how passionate both groups are,” Young said. “Me personally, us as a team, we’re super grateful. We really appreciate it. It really does help us. It pushes us. All that’s important love that we get from our fans. It means a lot to us.”
Having already climbed the mountain once with the same level of pressure and scrutiny, no team is better equipped mentally to do it again. The pressure that comes with playing at Alabama is something most players had to accept before they even committed to Nick Saban’s program.
The only thing left to do is put it together on the field. Georgia continues to breath down Alabama’s neck with the next shortest title odds at +300. And Ohio State +320 is right there too.
“There’s obviously a responsibility, there’s obviously pressure that comes with it. But it’s always been there,” Young said. “It’s something as a team we’re used to, individually I’m used to, and I think it’s something that pushes us to just do a better job upholding that standard and working to live up to it.”