re: Bama Football Tidings

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Alabama Crimson Tide freshman Bryce Young will wear No. 9 next season.

Hours before participating in what would have been his first practice at Alabama, Bryce Young saw his spring plans put on hold.

After joining the Crimson Tide in January, the freshman quarterback was well on his way to living up to his five-star fame. In less than three months, he had added roughly 20 pounds to his 6-foot frame, bulking up to 197 pounds. The new weight was accompanied by growing confidence in the film room as the right-hander was quickly soaking up Steve Sarkisian’s offense.

However, Young’s much-awaited Crimson Tide debut was put on hold as Alabama’s spring practice was wiped out by the COVID-19 outbreak. Now his pursuit of landing the starting quarterback job at Alabama won’t take place in Tuscaloosa but rather 2,000 miles away in his hometown of Pasadena, Calif.

“He’s very disappointed, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Young’s father, Craig, told BamaInsider. “But I think he’s more disappointed because he felt prepared. He was meeting with teammates, going over the script, and he was ready to go out there and compete. He felt like he had a pretty strong early period where, as an early enrollee, he felt he was doing well in the strength and conditioning and in the film room, and this was kind of his chance to get on the field and show what he can do.”

Bryce’s plans might have been altered, but his drive and determination remain unshaken. Despite dealing with the limitations caused by social distancing, the freshman still finds himself making major strides towards grasping Alabama’s offense.

The return home has reunited Bryce with longtime trainer Chris Flores of Sports Training and Rehabilitation Services. It has also put him back in contact with an elite company on the practice field. Flores works with several professional athletes in Southern California and has paired them up against Bryce in practice since the quarterback was in the sixth grade.

Recently, Bryce has been throwing to Pittsburgh Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster as well as former West Virginia star Kevin White, who was drafted No. 7 overall in 2015 by the Chicago Bears. Meanwhile, Bryce’s opposition has consisted of current Los Angeles Chargers defensive backs Derwin James and Desmond King II.

“The idea is to challenge him mentally,” Flores told BamaInsider. “He’s running his offense against those defenders, so that pushes him even more. There’s that mental challenge of knowing you’ve got to make your read faster, get the ball in there faster. You have to go through your drops. You’ve got to time it up, hold guys with your eyes. It’s really his ability to do it all.”

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