There’s just something different about Bryce Young

INDIANAPOLIS – In Alabama’s official team photo, he stands in the middle of the fourth row, dwarfed by linebackers Will Anderson Jr. and Demouy Kennedy, looking like someone’s little brother snuck in on a bet.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart labeled him Houdini. Bulldogs nose tackle Jordan Davis declared him the Gingerbread Man, as in You-Can’t-Catch-Me-I’m. And Alabama coach Nick Saban called him “a very, very mature guy, way beyond his years.”

It’s not exactly expert analysis to declare that Bryce Young, the Heisman Trophy winner, will be the most important player on the field Monday night. (“Oooooh, please! Mansplain some more!”)

But there is something different about Young, the undersized, overwhelming quarterback of the top-ranked Crimson Tide (13-1). There is something different and vital about the role he played on a team that began with equal amounts of talent and inexperience and finishes in a rematch against the fearsome Bulldogs (13-1) in the College Football National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Georgia may be 0-4 against Alabama under Smart, but the Dawgs are good enough to be ranked No. 3 and still be a three-point favorite over a team that beat them 41-24 in the SEC Championship Game five weeks ago.

“We played really well throughout the year, played consistent,” Smart said. “We didn’t have a lot of letdowns. And we played the best team we’ve played this year in the SEC championship. … (A)t the end of the day, we played a really good football team and they won more matchups than we did.”

Young is a big reason Alabama won that game. Young also is the biggest reason that the Tide has a chance to win its second consecutive CFP title, its third in five seasons and the seventh natty in Saban’s 15 years.

If the weight of those numbers is astounding, imagine how it could feel on the unimposing shoulders of a 6-foot, 194-pound quarterback. That Young has worn that weight lightly, has embraced big moment after big moment in leading the Tide to a 13-1 record and the SEC championship, is a testament to his leadership.

So, too, is imagining where this Alabama team might be without him.

Alabama has risen to the top of college football during Saban’s 15 years for several reasons, but none may be more important than Saban’s ability to select and successfully recruit a wealth of talent. The Tide’s depth has won a lot of games.

This season, Alabama has soldiered on to the championship game despite the loss of wide receiver John Metchie and cornerback Josh Jobe. Right guard Emil Ekiyor, an Indianapolis native, is questionable after hurting his shoulder last week in the Cotton Bowl.

In each case, Alabama plugged in another talented player, and here the Crimson Tide is in Indianapolis. But if something were to happen to Young, you could roll up the FieldTurf and send the 70,000 out into the frigid night air (expected outdoor temperature at game time: 20 degrees).

That’s not meant as a slight to his backups, sophomore Paul Tyson or freshman Jalen Milroe, who have 23 passes and 15 rushes between them. It’s an illustration of how important Young has been in guiding Alabama to this moment.

First, there’s his ability. Young has thrown for 4,503 yards, a school single-season record. He has completed 67.6 percent of attempts, with 46 touchdowns and five interceptions. Young has those numbers despite 53 hurries and 37 sacks. Smart marveled at Young’s production despite those latter numbers.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen really anything like it,” Smart said Sunday. “And we talk about him as Houdini because he can make people miss. He gets rid of the ball. People don’t even account [for] the number of times this guy has avoided sacks and thrown the ball with no intention of anybody catching it. But he knows where to throw the ball to not take a sack.”

Smart has circled the zero sacks that the Dawgs produced in the SEC Championship Game as one of the biggest reasons for the Tide’s upset victory.

“Bryce is an extremely talented athlete,” Davis said Saturday. “He’s slippery. And I forgot, we were watching, I think “Hard Knocks,” with the Colts, and they were talking about the ‘Gingerbread Man’ and how (Cardinals quarterback) Kyler Murray was running around like a gingerbread man. That’s what we’ve been calling him (Young) all week.”

Young’s response: “I guess that’s a compliment.”

Second, there’s Young’s intellect.

“Bryce does about as good a job as anybody we’ve ever had in our program in terms of how he prepares for a game,” Saban said, “how he studies the other team, how he sort of knows the ins and outs of what we want to try to execute and what we want to try to do on offense.”

And there’s his emotional IQ.

“He’s a leader, and he’s got sort of an emotional stability about him that he doesn’t really get frustrated or upset in any kind of way, even when things don’t go well,” Saban said. “He can stay focused and keep doing what he thinks he needs to do to be able to have success and make adjustments, adapt to what he needs to do.”

Alabama’s road to the national championship game could have used a paving. Four of the Tide’s eight SEC victories (and the 41-38 loss at Texas A&M) came by one-score margins, the most close games in conference play since 2007, Saban’s first season at Alabama. That’s another indication of the youth of this team, and another reason Young’s play stands out. He didn’t flinch in the fourth quarter, and neither did this team.

“It’s a pretty simple mindset,” Young said. “It’s not complicated at all. We all know what we’re here for. And it’s all about getting better and doing what we have to do to put ourselves in the best position when Monday comes.”

Monday is here. The sad thing about the game is that so much of the legacy of Young’s 2021 season will be wrapped in how he finishes. A young quarterback has had a remarkable season. But if the Tide loses, history will turn its head toward Georgia. History is cruel that way.