Bryce Young’s upbringing from an early age.

Bruce Rawlinson was Bryce Young's high school coach at the famed modern-day high school in Santa Ana, California, and he joins us on the Adam Gold Show.

All right, I just want to get right to it. I know you had him at the end of his high school career. When did you know that he was different?

You know what, Adam? He came in as a second semester sophomore, and we had just had great success with J.T. Daniels deciding to reclassify, which kind of came as a shock to the program. And, you know, the Lord's good all of a sudden, you know, Bryce sees an opening here, Dad and Mom take care of the eligibility stuff, and the next thing you know, we've got Bryce. A lot of pressure on the kid when he came in with following the Gatorade National Player of the Year and an undefeated football team and the first black quarterback in the school history, and everybody's watching.

I'll tell you when I knew. We had gone through the preliminary workouts February, March, April. Spring football in California, you don't put pads on. I saw glimpses of greatness, but in the summer, when it gets pretty serious, we had a practice where I, you know, like my line coach said, Bryce, you got to step up in the pocket. The back coach is saying, you know, just drift right, drift right.

And after practice, I got everybody together, and I said, all right, here's what I figured out, fellas. Nobody coaches Bryce Young, including me, because I don't know what he's going to do, but whenever he does, whatever he does, magic happens. So if he leaves the pocket, start rooting. And if he tornadoes out of there and he shouldn't have, it's okay. Because somehow, either through his running ability or the golden arm with the fastest release we had ever seen in this program, good things would happen.

And now if you fast forward, he had a very solid, I mean, you know, took off where JT left off. But now all of a sudden, here comes IMG into our stadium. And, you know, it's a place is rocking, there's 12,000 plus people in the house. And, you know, we're down by four with a buck 30 on the clock, no timeouts, we get the ball back, we've got to go 91 to win it. And, you know, the place is going crazy. And here comes this 17 year old running by me and he gives me a thumbs up and goes, I got this coach.

And I said, Okay, that's, that's different. And he probably goes six for six, two of them were his magic running around. One of them was a third and 12. And he found a kid on the backside of a route and just put his foot in the ground and shot it across by design, you shouldn't throw across your body, but, you know, only Bryce can. And makes me look like coach of the year and we win the football game and kind of the rest is history. We just, we were fascinated, you know, with what he did. And then the next year, what happened is, is we now can really unload the true potential of our offense on Bryce.

And, and basically, you know, we, I would tell you, in all honesty, 75% of the time, we'd give him a formation and we'd point at him, meaning he's going to call it. And what I've always respected about Bryce is if the box was right, he'd run the football. He wasn't a ball hog. He didn't want, you know, passing statistics and completions. He wanted to win football games. And then my final comment, but I knew we had something special and you've seen this throughout his career. He never talked about himself.

He always deflected all the credit to the line. He always talked about the receivers, the backs, the coaches. And then, and it, it, I got very close to him, got very close to his parents, very close with Craig. Now I kind of use him as a mentor. He wasn't the crazy, crazy quarterback coach dad that was fully involved. I knew my role was to, to showcase where I have fun with Bryce. He knew his role. And, and the chemistry was perfect from from Julie, Craig and, and Bryce and I, and, and modern day high school.

It was a great fit. Bruce Rawlinson, Rollo, Bryce Young's high school coach at modern day in Santa Ana, California. You've had, you've had a bunch of really good quarterbacks first. I don't understand how Bryce didn't go to Southern Cal. Matt Barkley, Matt Leinart, Todd Marinovich, JT Daniels.

It was like, you were like a finishing school for Southern Cal. So without getting into that, how did, I mean, those are really good college quarterbacks and even, you know, Leinart had a cup of coffee in the pros, but he was a high pick. You had a lot of good quarterbacks. So how different was, right. And try Barkley is still a Buffalo. So how, how did he compare to those guys? Was he, it sounds to me like you're saying he was more advanced in his mind than those guys.

And that's probably the key to being a great NFL quarterback. How you think the game. It's Macy's friends and family get an extra 30% off great gifts for her. Just in time for mother's day. When you use your coupon or Macy's card and take 15% off beauty essentials or shop specials.

She'll love while supplies last plus star rewards members earn on every purchase, except gift card services and fees at Macy's sign up today at macy's.com slash star rewards savings off regular sale and clearance prices. Exclusions apply. Well, I would tell you this, you know, I don't do many comparisons because the game changed from obviously Leinart, nearly two thousands to the Bryce in the, in the late 2010s. The difference that we had to adjust us was the run threat. I basically, I said this when he was in high school, I had a tailback with a million dollar arm. He was smart. He knew when to get out of bounds. He knew when to go down. He knew how to protect himself, but that run threat was, was something that we, we had never had.

His cerebral knowledge is, is just like the rest of the great ones. But when you, when you get high school quarterbacks, I've had some that can throw it from here to the next city, but they're not married into what is going to take you to greatness at the college and professional level. And that is that mental where you want to meet with the coordinator and talk concept, where you like watching tape on into the, you know, nine o'clock. I used to kid Bryce and say, I'm going to buy a coaching shirt because, you know, when I'd be leaving the facility after an afternoon practice, you know, I had always locked up and there would be Bryce just watching video. And then the next day he'd be with the coordinator saying, you know, I think we should change, you know, in this concept, let's change the inside slot to a whip route. And we kind of go, okay, that's not a bad idea.

Let's do it. Um, the, his ability, he ran the show. He could change the right side routes.

He could change the left side routes, all routes, and then he could redirect protection to, to save his life. And he, and he did it well. Um, but it, it, it, it's more this, I, I, I've always had difficulty describing his demeanor, how calm he is, how unflappable steady.

Uh, I remember watching the Auburn game a couple of years back and, and, you know, he took the field and I looked at my wife and I said, I wish I could get to Vegas and bet all the money I have, which is not very much. He's going to win this football game. He's going to take them straight down and score. This is what he does best. The bigger, the moment, the bigger he plays. But yes, he has this mental confidence and understanding of the game that is above and beyond it. It's what separates him.

Um, and, and yeah, I've said it publicly. I think he's the best one we ever coached. Bruce Rawlinson from Matter Day High School in Santa Ana, California, uh, coach Bryce young in high school, really only have, uh, one more thing for you because he's sort of the modern guy. Um, and I'm not trying to compare him to Patrick Mahomes, but Mahomes does his best work when everything just falls apart around him.

And every time I've watched Bryce, it seems that's the case when it all breaks down. And I know he's 5'10 and maybe 185 pounds, uh, without drinking a gallon of water. Uh, so I know what his, what his frame looks like and it'll get a little bit bigger.

It'll get a little thicker, lower body strength will improve, upper body strength will improve, but he just has the ability to kind of make it work when everything is chaotic around him. And that's, to me, that's the modern quarterback. No, it arrives in that atmosphere, but you know what, uh, as a high school kid, he was a normal high school kid in the sense that he enjoyed his classwork. Um, he, he, he would stop kids and say, Hey, get your head up, man.

It's a great day today. Um, and, and, and he's not some kind of weird, but in the, in the pressure moment, that's the guy you want in, in the foxhole with you. Um, I think the bigger it is, the bigger he's going to perform.

And, and I was witness to that, um, time and time again, you know, we'd be backed up and, and, and he'd do something special. Uh, it, you know, it's like people have been asking me, well, what do you think he'll do with, you know, well, first of all, this size, you know, who cares about his size? Okay.

Just, just watch the tape. But, you know, people say, well, how will he react if something happens and he's not the number one draft choice? I think it's a win-win for us if he is number one.

Okay. He will, he will go on a personal vendetta to prove everybody that he should be and deserve to be number one. If for some reason, it doesn't go, he'll go, he'll have a vendetta to say, I am going to prove to you why you made a mistake. Um, it's just how he operates. He is able to deal with peripheral media, uh, whatever it is. Um, you know, the, the, the, the, all the things that come with being a big time player, he just goes with the flow. Uh, and, and, and he's, and he's very comfortable, you know, he just kind of moves and where are we going today, dad?

Okay, let's do it. Um, and I think that's why he's going to be successful, but yeah, I think you're spot on. I think you're spot on, uh, you know, that there, there's a certain moxie, uh, cockiness, confidence that, that, you know, just exudes from him. Well, I appreciate your time, Bruce Rawlinson, Bryce Young's high school coach at modern day, who again, I don't know how he didn't go to Southern Cal since they all seem to go there, but that's great.

Uh, Alabama was certainly happy and, uh, I know you'll be proud. I think he's going to be the first pick. I think he should be. I think there's a separation between what he can do and what CJ Stroud can do. And that's not a knock on CJ Stroud.

I think Bryce as a quarterback, as a thrower is special. I'm glad, uh, I'm glad we talked. Thank you so much. No, you're very, very welcome.

And, and it's always an honor to talk about the great Bryce young and, and yeah, I, I completely agree with you and, and, you know, the, the Panther fans are going to go, there we go. Now we're going to roll. It's Macy's friends and family get an extra 30% off great gifts for her. Just in time for mother's day, when you use your coupon or Macy's card and take 15% off beauty essentials or shop specials she'll love while supplies last plus star rewards members earn on every purchase, except gift cards, services, and fees at Macy's sign up today at macy's.com slash star rewards savings off regular sale and clearance prices. Exclusions apply.