Nick Saban details 4th quarter confidence in Bryce Young, Will Reichard

Alabama barely survived a trip to Austin unscathed, beating Texas, 20-19, thanks to some late heroics from quarterback Bryce Young and clutch kicks from Will Reichard. After the game, head coach Nick Saban said his confidence in those two was never in doubt.

Young led Alabama down the field on back-to-back go-ahead scoring drives in the fourth quarter, including a drive with less than two minutes to set up a game-winning field goal for Reichard. Saban didn’t have a doubt in either.

“I knew he’d do a good job in 2-minute. He always does,” Saban said postgame according to SI’s Ross Dellenger.

Young, for his part, was his usual cool, collected self in the critical moments. He said as much after the game.

“That’s where we love to be at. I feel comfortable in those position,” Young said.

Bryce Young on 2 min drive: “That’s where we love to be at. I feel comfortable in those position.” pic.twitter.com/VJUhoTS1ZO

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 10, 2022

Young was held in check most of the day by a voracious Texas defense. But he managed to produce some late-game magic to save help save the day for the tide, with a big assist from Reichard.

“Game winner today. I had total confidence in him,” Saban said.

Saban was not pleased with the penalties from Alabama

Top-ranked Alabama survived an unbelievably sloppy game against Texas on Saturday, thanks to the late game heroics of their signal-caller. The Crimson Tide were uncharacteristically sloppy and had 15 penalties through three quarters–the most in the Nick Saban era at Alabama. Despite all the penalties, Alabama was able to survive in a 20-19 win. Following the game, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban was obviously displeased with the penalties and discussed it in the post-game press conference.

You can read the transcription below or just listen to the audio in the video at 2:20-2:47.

“Well, I mean when you have a false start on offense because of crowd noise. If you jump offsides on defense that doesn’t have anything to do with crowd noise. Block a guy in the back. That doesn’t have anything to do with crowd noise. Alright. So, a lot of them are undisciplined penalties. But we have to be able to play and manage crowd noise if we’re gonna play in this league, in the SEC. Because every place we play’s gonna be like this. So, this is nothing big,” Saban said on Saturday.