Poor Bryce Young.
Hasn’t he gone through enough over the last year and some change?
It’s not like his former head coach, Nick Saban, set out to throw him under the bus. Still, the former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback received a stray as the College GameDay personality attempted to compliment Mike Elko. The first-year Texas A&M head coach was on set Saturday, as ESPN’s traveling pregame road show was live from College Station.
Saban talked about playing in College Station before the No. 20 Aggies’ matchup against No. 7 Notre Dame. Texas A&M has only beaten Alabama three times, and one of those instances was back in 2021 when they hosted the then-No. 1 team in the country and walked them off on a Seth Small 28-yard field goal.
This is the same season that Young would go on to win the Heisman, and it’s not like he played poorly in the 41-38 loss. He completed 28-of-48 passes (58.3 percent) for 369 yards with three touchdowns against an interception with an 81.9 QB rating. But according to his former head coach, Texas A&M pretty much had him in hell. Mike Elko — and his blitzes — specifically.
“The last time we played here at night, which was three years ago, y’all beat us,” Saban said of Kyle Field while speaking with Elko live on-set. “Bryce Young, after winning 19 games in a row, Bryce Young was so confused by your pressures that we had no chance.”
“The last time we played here at night, which was three years ago, ya’ll beat us… After winning 19 games in a row, Bryce Young was so confused by your pressures, that we had no chance.” – Nick Saban
“I’m going to take that one and run, coach.” – Texas A&M HC Mike Elko pic.twitter.com/AGVbrtXtPi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 31, 2024
Well, the Crimson Tide did get the ball back with three minutes left, tied 38 apiece, and quickly went three-and-out. Young threw incompletions to Jahleel Billingsley and John Metchie III, probably partly due to the pressure that then-defensive coordinator Elko was sending.
They got the ball back, five plays and a defensive pass interference penalty later, and Kyle Field suddenly became a house of horrors for Saban, Young and company.
“I’m going to take that one and run, coach,” Elko quipped.
Elko’s Aggies will need to pressure Riley Leonard, his former quarterback at Duke, like that if they plan on handing the Fighting Irish a loss at home. Perhaps Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman should give Saban a ring and try to prepare for having his veteran quarterback confused inside the confines of Kyle Field.
You could hear Saban just shuddering thinking about it.
So much so that his former quarterback got a stray from over 1,000 miles away.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.