Byron Young still sees a lot to play for this season at Alabama

Alabama defensive lineman Byron Young believes the Crimson Tide still have a lot to play for this season. Despite suffering the second loss of the season to LSU on Saturday, all but ending Alabama’s hope of competing for a national championship, Young is choosing to focus on the pride he has both for himself and Alabama.

Speaking with reporters in a Monday press conference, Young revealed how he keeps a positive mindset despite knowing that the main goal he had to begin the season is no longer within reach.

“I think it’s a challenge, but at the same time, we’ve still got a lot of play for,” he said. “We’ve gotta play for the name on the back of our jersey, play for the name on the front of it and we’ve gotta play for everybody that’s beside us. I’m gonna come in every day and work just like I’m going to play for a national championship next Saturday. That’s what I expect everybody else to do.”

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Alabama has missed the College Football Playoff just once since its inception in 2014, which coincidentally also came during a year it lost to LSU and missed the SEC title game. The Crimson Tide also did not make a New Year’s Six bowl that season, but managed to come away with a win against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

With that also seeming a likely scenario this season, Byron Young has continued preaching to his Alabama teammates that they still have each other and the name on their jersey to play for.

“I think it’s gonna have to be the same thing. I think you’ve got a lot of people that might be questioning what we’re playing for, might be questioning why we’re still doing what we’re doing. At the end of the day, we’ve got to get across to some guys that might not understand that we’re playing for the people beside us, the name on the back of our jerseys and the A on the front. We still have a standard that we’ve gotta uphold. We’ve just gotta get it across that we’ve still got something to play for.”

The Crimson Tide will start that journey at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday when they face Ole Miss on the road in Oxford.