Much like its most recent seasons, Alabama will have a new starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2021 season with the competition beginning now during the team’s spring practices.
To many, the favorite for the job is sophomore signal-caller Bryce Young who is one of the most hyped prospects the Crimson Tide have recruited at the position. Young arrived in Tuscaloosa as a five-star quarterback out of Mater Dei High School in California and was the team’s second-string option last season.
After appearing in a handful of games last season, Young is working towards becoming the next starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide, and head coach Nick Saban gave him some praise during his Friday press conference.
“Probably didn’t play him as much as we wanted or would have liked to, a little bit because we were playing 10 SEC games and we didn’t have any other games that we could sort of work him into more,” Saban said. “But I thought he did a good job. I thought as times he was feeling his way out there, not playing with the kind of confidence that we would like for him to play with, but it’s part of his development and he learned from it.
“He’s much better in practice, like today. This was the first day we could actually throw, and I thought he did a good job.”
In 2020 Young attempted just 22 passes in his freshman season and completed 13 giving of those attempts for 156 yards and one touchdown.
Despite the lack of in-game experience, Young is gaining a ton of extra practice time headed into this year as the team did not have any spring practices last season due to COVID-19. He will still be facing competition from redshirt sophomore Paul Tyson and maybe even incoming freshman Jalen Milroe, but if Young lives up to the praise from Saban it will hard not to roll with the California kid.
“He did a pretty good job and he looked a lot more comfortable sort of managing and executing the offense and playing fast, Saban said. “So I think that was really encouraging.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
