Nick Saban on Bryce Young, Will Anderson: 'They'll overcome it very well'

Alabama had the Heisman Trophy and Bronko Nagurski Award winners this year. After the Crimson Tide’s national championship loss to Georgia, Nick Saban said he’s not worried about how they’ll bounce back.

Bryce Young and Will Anderson were two of the most dominant players in college football this season. They didn’t have their best games, which is part of the reason Georgia won 33-18.

Saban had a great moment with the two after their postgame press conference. Once Young and Anderson left, he addressed how they’ll come off the loss.

“They’re great competitors,” Saban said. “Great competitors always respond well to adversity. There’s nobody that feels worse about losing this game than these two guys. So I know we look at things from our perspective, but internally, on a team, these players put a lot of hard work in. They made a lot of sacrifices to contribute to the team so the team has a chance to have success, to have an opportunity to be here.

“There’s nobody that feels worse about that than them. And there’s nobody that’s going to want to do more to try to get better so that they have an opportunity to have success in the future. … These two young men are great competitors and they’ll overcome it very well, I’m sure.”

Young threw for 356 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions for the first time in his career. On the other side of the ball, Anderson had four tackles.

Nick Saban delivers message to Bryce Young, Will Anderson after title game loss

Alabama came up short on Monday in the National Championship. Georgia walked away with the title after winning 33-18 inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. After the loss, Alabama head coach Nick Saban went out of his way to make sure that he could share a special moment with quarterback Bryce Young and linebacker Will Anderson.

As Young and Anderson were dismissed from their postgame media availability and getting up to head back to the locker room, Saban, seated between the two, stopped them from getting up. Saban then asked for a moment so that he could share a passionate message towards his two star players.

“These two guys sitting up here, they’re not defined by one game,” Saban said. “They played great for us all year, they were great competitors, great leaders on this team and they contributed tremendously to the success of this team. And we would not be here without them.”