Home College Football Alabama Quarterback Takes The Heisman Trophy

Alabama Quarterback Takes The Heisman Trophy

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Photo Credit:Marvin Chambers

New York, NY—After spending the last two days with Bryce Young and his family I can see where he gets his calm and cool demeanor from, his dad Craig Young.

This is what Mr. Young had to say about his son: “I have always pushed Bryce to be better and prepared. He might be the biggest kid on the field, we can’t control that but what we can control is attitude, being mentally ready and the ability to compete. If you can do those three things everything else will fall into place.”

Young won the 2021 Heisman Trophy in New York City on Saturday night, becoming the fourth Alabama player to win the award, all of them winning it under head coach Nick Saban. He also became the first quarterback in the history of Bama’s football program to win the coveted Trophy.

He spoke with the media after winning the Heisman Trophy but he has his sights on some more hardware in a few weeks.

“Yeah, a hundred percent. This is a huge honor, a huge blessing. This is something that’s surreal to accomplish and I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Young said.

“But at the end of the day this wasn’t the goal, and the goal is not completed yet. For us it’s just giving it our all for — we have really a one-game season. We have to do everything we can do to prepare. We have to work harder than we have before,” the California native said. “It’s going to take everything for us to be successful in this next game, and that’s what we need to do. This is a huge blessing. This is something I’m going to be grateful for forever, but this isn’t the end goal, and there’s a lot more for me individually to work on and for us as a team to accomplish.”

Alabama will face Cincinnati in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl in the College Football Playoff Semifinal. Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. EST from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Young made it look easy in his sophomore season, he annihilated opposing defenses to the tune of 4,322 passing yards, while passing 43 touchdowns and four picks.

Photo Credit:Marvin Chambers

Nick Saban has already won six national titles for Alabama. Young is hoping he can deliver number seven for the legendary coach and further etch both of their places into college football immortality.

“It’s a surreal experience, it’s an extreme blessing,” Young said. “I’m blessed to have that experience. To hear your name called, it is surreal. To share this weekend with the great players around me who were also there, it just makes it that much more a huge blessing.”

Alabama returned just three starters on the offensive side of the ball this season, and while it was the brand of football they are accustom to of playing, the offensive squad found a way to win 12 games and earn the program’s seventh appearance in the College Football Playoff.

The first year starter also took a moment on Saturday to comment specifically on being the inaugural signal caller to bring the award back to Tuscaloosa.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” Young said. “Like you said, there’s such a rich quarterback history here, and there’s been so many greats that have came before me. It’s really crazy to think that no one else has actually won the award at that position.”

While neither of them won the Heisman, the Tide has sent multiple quarterbacks to New York in recent years. Mac Jones was a finalist in 2020 and Tua Tagovailoa was a finalist in 2018. Jones finished third, while Tagovailoa finished second.

“But for myself to now have won the award, it’s a huge honor,” Young added. “It was big for me understanding the quarterback tradition and the standard that it was to play quarterback at University of Alabama. It was important for me to live up to that and try to meet that standard. I still feel like I have a long way to go. There’s a lot more me to improve on and get better at, so the journey is definitely not complete, but for this to be a big milestone and for me to do all I can to help kind of push forward that standard and hold that precedent, it means a lot to me.”

Bryce Young earned 83% of possible Heisman Voting points, beating out runner-up Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan in a landslide. He became the first quarterback in school history to win the sport’s most coveted award.

He sealed the Heisman Trophy with his 421-yard three touchdown performance against top-ranked Georgia in the SEC title game. Jameson Williams was again the top target of Young, finishing with seven catches for 184 yards in the game prior to the Heisman Trophy ceremony.