The Bryce Young recruiting profiles coming out of high school were impressive.
He was the top-ranked player in the 247Sports assessment of the 2020 class and the No. 20 all-time recruit in its composite. Young came from a powerhouse program in Mater Dei as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in his class.
Tua 2.0?
Well, not exactly, but lately he’s shown a little more of the other component of the duality of his quarterbacking. After taking off and running rarely in his first few games as Alabama’s starting quarterback, Young’s run it 12 times in the past two games.
He had nine non-sack carries in the previous six games as the sophomore from Pasadena found more comfort exiting the pocket. His scrambling played a big part in the Crimson Tide’s 52-24 win over Tennessee on a third-down performance for the ages.
Alabama converted 15 of 20 third downs, four on Young scrambles -- two of which went for touchdowns. His five-yard scoring run that tied the game at 14 was his first collegiate rushing touchdown after two consecutive handoffs to Brian Robinson netted five yards.
“Bryce, he was shifty coming out of the backfield,” said Brian Robinson, Alabama’s leading rusher with 107 yards and three touchdowns against Tennessee. “He was just showing his scrambling ability and showing why he was the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in his class. Many people question his ability to run and he showed he could run the ball today.”
Alabama scored field goals on the other two drives Young extended with third-down conversions running. All of this comes from improvision since Nick Saban said they don’t have any called quarterback runs in the current game plan. The fact Tennessee was dropping more guys into coverage meant fewer passing lanes, practically daring Young to find a crease to take off.
“But he’s done a really good job of scrambling,” Saban said. “He is really deceptively quick and has a really good burst and moves around very effectively in the pocket. So he’s not easy to sack. So that’s been very beneficial to us. I would actually hope that he doesn’t have to do it, that we could protect well enough and get people open well enough that we can throw and catch it and he wouldn’t have to do that.”
Overall, Alabama was 15-for-20 on third downs to hit the 75% success rate a second straight week. The last time it converted on three of every four third downs with that many attempts was 2014 and they equaled that mark in consecutive wins over Mississippi State (12-for-16) and Tennessee.
Through the air, Young was 8-for-12 on third downs, converting all eight completions for 175 of his 371 passing yards.
Young’s scampers started to increase last week in Starkville. He ran it four times for 34 yards in non-sack situations. Two of those four runs converted third downs including a 12-yarder that nearly resulted in his first touchdown.
Before that, he ran it just nine times in the first six games. Three of those carries went for first downs with a long of 15 on a third-and-eight run at Texas A&M. He had five runs of 11-plus yards against the Vols.
“Having him scrambling put a little bit more pressure on the defense for what they need to look forward to,” Robinson said.
Young finished as Alabama’s second-leading rusher against the Vols, officially netting 42 rushing yards on 10 attempts when the two sacks for negative-14 yards were factored in. For the season, he’s averaging 6.9 yards per scramble while gaining a first down on 10 of the 21 attempts.
A rundown of each of Bryce Young’s non-sack running plays this season.
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