Bryce Young got the look.
His father, Craig Young, knows this well. He has already seen it. In fact, several times in the life of the Alabama football quarterback. And it’s back this off season.
“I can see that look in his eyes where he was so motivated,” said Craig.
He has appeared whenever Young has spent an off-season day span throwing, training, and lifting. Don’t travel or take a lot of free time. Just working.
“I’ve seen that in him before,” Craig said. “And I know what that means.”
Craig saw it in 2016, when his son was aiming to beat the current upper-class holder even though Young would only have been a high school freshman. The two quarterbacks ended up sharing time that year.
Then there was 2019. After throwing 39 junior touchdowns en route to all-state recognition, Young pushed for further improvement. He ended up throwing 58 touchdowns and running 10 in his senior year.
The look appeared again in 2021 when Young tried to take advantage of Alabama’s open quarterback spot. He ended up winning the Heisman Trophy.
“This,” said Craig, “looks very familiar in those days.”
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Young is fresh off a season that ended in a 33-18 loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff championship. It was only Young’s fifth defeat in the past four football seasons.
Now, the quarterback who rarely loses is tasked with responding to his biggest loss ever.
“He’s hungry,” said Taylor Kelly, a longtime QB trainer for Young. “He is the hungriest I’ve seen him.”
Minigolf and bowling
The Young family competes in everything.
Everything.
Minigolf, bowling, board games. Even One. If there is a way for the Youngs to compete, they will.
Parents usually finish second and third behind their child.
“Bryce is better at everything,” said Julie Young, her mother, in New York before the Heisman ceremony. “It’s like one of those things where you sit there and say, ‘Really? Really?'”
“It’s so annoying,” Craig added. “So annoying.”
Young people usually won especially when they hit their teens and high school years.
“But on the occasions when he lost at minigolf or bowling, he would be so crazy,” said Craig. “He didn’t even talk to us. He would be angry if he drove home. “
So Young usually got over it in the morning.
His contempt for loss hasn’t changed. The difference is in the way she responds.
“I think maturity comes in the way you apply what happens to not make things go in your favor,” Craig said. “How do you look at those things objectively? And then how are the adjustments made? And how do you use it to improve? I think that’s where his maturity lies because I think he did a really good job of being internally motivated. “
No time travel
The first sensation Young experienced after the national championship was hurt. Then came the anger.
To himself.
“You look back and wish you could have reproductions back, moments back,” Young said in the spring.
He saw the film once immediately to help him process everything. Then she looked back in the spring. A few other times, she said she saw it for self-discovery purposes.
“You can’t time travel,” Young said, “So what am I going to do to improve, to learn from those mistakes? It really was a process to turn that page for me and not look at it the way you would like it back, but, ‘Okay, I did. It was not successful. What can I do to grow? ‘”
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the loss, his parents gave him the space he needed. This is their protocol, whether it’s the national league or bowling.
Young doesn’t want a bunch of hugs or attaboys, his father said, but his parents will write to him, send him scriptures, and tell him they love him.
Once Young is done going through his trial alone, he and his parents talk and go through it together. Craig and Julie made sure to give him the time and space he needed in January.
“The process was probably pretty familiar, but I think it’s just the size of it that’s different,” Craig said. “In the short part, it sucks. He hates to lose. “
Instead of complaining or pouting, Young channeled that contempt for defeat. He got to work.
“This year was a little different”
Many days in May seemed similar to Young.
Staying in Orange County, California, the Alabama quarterback started the day with weightlifting. Then Young drove 10-15 minutes to a secluded grassy 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 have ended up with speed and agility work. He completed this routine three or four days a week during the May rest period.
“The way he approaches training and training in the off-season, it’s on a high level,” said Kelly. “But this year was a little different in terms of some specific things he really wanted to achieve in this offseason.”
Positioning was an area that Young worked on. This could mean the position of her feet, her head, or another part of her body. Maybe his feet were slightly out of place during a game or his head slipped slightly in another shot. Small and almost imperceptible to the uncultivated eye but sometimes vital.
“He would have almost made up for it just because he was so talented,” said Kelly. “But there are times when it didn’t work.”
So Young and Kelly worked to limit those times for the 2022 season.
Sometimes, they got help. For Kelly, Alabama teammates who came to train with Young included new receivers Tyler Harrell and Jermaine Burton as well as Christian Leary and tight end Cameron Latu. This is the first time Kelly remembers Young carrying receivers.
It’s part of Young’s effort to do more than just prepare for the season. The returning captain has a team to prepare with a national championship up for grabs in what will likely be his last university season.
“Even though he’s garnered a lot of personal awards this year,” said Kelly, “I think he’s even more hungry to get what he’s really looking for.”
Nick Kelly covers Alabama men’s football and basketball for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter: @_NickKelly