“But at the end of the day, what motivates me and pushes me is to model myself after the Lord. “Regardless of how someone else views me, whatever award, accolade, whatever someone may say - negative or positive - I appreciate and am grateful for the positive, and even for the negative,” Young said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast. There have been plenty others who, in Young’s shoes, might have basked in the fame and attention that comes with the cache of being the Heisman-winning quarterback at Alabama.īut Bryce Young is different, and he wants people to know why. That’s a lot of attention on a young man. For his efforts, he was named the Heisman Trophy Award winner, given annually to college football’s top player. It was Young’s Heisman moment.Īs a sophomore last season, Young led Alabama to a 13-2 record, an SEC championship and a national runner-up finish. He did it all while one of his best receiving targets, eventual first-round pick Jameson Williams, was injured on the sideline.Īlabama went on to win, 24-22, in four overtimes, with Young delivering big play after big play when his team needed them, including the game-winning two-point conversion pass to eventual first-round pick John Metchie. The drive stalled before Young found Ja’Corey Brooks in the end zone on a third-and-10 pass with 24 seconds left to tie the game after the extra point. Young completed a first-down pass on third and 10 from deep inside the Alabama end zone, then another one on fourth and 7 with 38 seconds left. “I looked at my wife and I said, ‘He’s going to take them all the way down. Auburn punted to Alabama and pinned it down at the 3-yard line with just 1:32 left to play and the Crimson Tide trailing, 10-3. 3 Crimson Tide was facing in-state rival Auburn in a game that not only had Iron Bowl bragging rights on the line, but one ‘Bama needed to win to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive. The stage was bigger, the stakes were higher. It was a prequel to what hundreds of thousands more witnessed last fall when Young found himself in a similar situation, this time as the quarterback at Alabama. The position was also once held by former USC star and Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, as well as Matt Barkley, another former USC star QB who’s now in his seventh NFL season.Īfter that drive, though, Rollinson said it became the “Bryce Young Show” at Mater Dei. Daniels, the 2017 Gatorade National Player of the Year who went on to play at USC, Georgia and now West Virginia. He stepped into the starter’s role at Mater Dei after the departure of J.T. It’s as if Young was built for these moments. “When I finally got to Bryce after he did that, I swear he looked at me and said, ‘I told you.’ I stopped and I said, ‘Wow, we’ve got somebody special.’” I’ve talked to him about it and his faith is very deep. He knows that confidence comes from his Savior,” Rollinson said. There were of course a few chest bumps and high-fives with teammates, but the indelible moment after that score, Rollinson recalls, is Young stopping and pointing to Heaven. That drive is now cemented in Mater Dei football lore, shown ad nauseum in highlight videos and promotional material.īut Rollinson doesn’t tell that story to brag about the on-field exploits of Young, though there are plenty. Young capped off the drive with a game-winning 9-yard touchdown run on a read-option play.

“All six plays, he’s keeping the ball alive,” Rollinson said. Young, then a junior, went six-for-six on that drive, never fazed by the pressure. “It kind of calmed everybody down because this was his moment.” “He jogged by, had a big smile on his face, and he goes, ‘We got this, Coach,’” Rollinson said.

Undaunted, quarterback Bryce Young put on his helmet and made his way up the sideline. IMG kicked a field goal to take a 24-21 lead with 3:27 left to play, but Mater Dei was about to get the ball back. Plenty of Division I talent was on the field.

1 team in the country, IMG Academy, a football powerhouse out of Bradenton, Florida. A raucous crowd of nearly 10,000 people packed the stands at the Santa Ana, California, high school to see his No. It was a “massive game,” as Mater Dei head football coach Bruce Rollinson remembers it.

Raised in a family of faith, he’s also grounded by his relationship with the Lord as he aims to “embody Christ in all that I do.” Fall 2022 issue Bryce Young is a Heisman-winning quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide, the most storied college football program in the nation.

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