College Football Fix: Byron Young, Alabama Crimson Tide Defensive Lineman

We miss college football. Drops back, pressure from the edges, he throws near sideline and it's intercepted, intercepted. Keely Ringo at the 21, off he goes, 40, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, near sideline, breaks the tackle, 20, 15, 10, 5, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, Georgia. Let the celebration begin. We can't wait for the 2022 season. Rice gets it, backpedals onto the end zone, loads up, looks long, he's got going behind the defense.

Jamison makes the grab at midfield, down the right sideline, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, touchdown, Alabama, 94 yards. And we're counting down the days to kick off. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? I said no. Are we there yet?

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix, only on the Zach Gelb Show. Well, we had some games last weekend for week zero, but now week one is upon us. And coming up on Saturday night, Alabama kicks off their season as they welcome in Utah State. We'll head out to the guest line right now on the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. And welcome in a senior defensive lineman from the Crimson Tide, and that of course is Byron Young.

Byron, appreciate the time. How are you? I'm doing well. How about you?

I'm doing fantastic. So each and every year we just get a custom and we expect Alabama to win the entire thing. You guys got close last year when you lost to the national title game to Georgia. What was this offseason like after having to overcome some adversity?

I mean, I would say it's similar to every other offseason. You know, every other offseason we're preparing to be the best that we can be, no matter the result that we got at the end of last year. But I mean, we obviously had a really bitter taste in our mouth as of the way that the season ended with us losing to Georgia. You know, they were a great football team. But, you know, we feel like we made some mistakes.

And we might have had some things that we could have done differently that could have changed the outcome in that game. But the offseason, it was a great offseason. A lot of people came together.

A lot of people worked. So it was just a great offseason overall. Does that fire just keep on burning in your tummy all offseason long or do you have to distance yourself from that national title game? I think it's a little bit of both. I think it's a little bit of both. I would say it's something that you can use to motivate you. But I think it's something that you just can't continue to look at over and over. Because if you continue to just look at one game and you just continue to stay set on one game, then you might lose sight of, you know, the stuff that you have in front of you.

You might lose sight of the first game or the next game. So I think it's a little bit of both. Byron Young, senior defensive lineman from Alabama, here with us on the Zach Gelb show. I saw your coach, the legendary Nick Saban, he said this offseason that last year felt like a rebuilding year. Do you agree with that?

That last year was a rebuilding year for Alabama? I mean, I think that that really wouldn't be my place to say something like that. You know, I don't really, I'm not in the meeting rooms. I'm not in the other position meeting rooms.

So I'm not seeing everything that they're doing. I think we had a lot of great players last year. I think we had a lot of young guys last year, too. But I think we had a great team last year. I think we'll have an even better team this year.

What makes this team better this upcoming year, Byron Young? I think we have a lot more. I think we have a lot more experience. I think we have a lot of guys who have been here and who know what it takes to win. I think we also have some guys here that know what it's like to lose.

So I think that just knowing both sides of the spectrum, you know, now we know what it takes to win and we know what it looks like when we might not be preparing the correct way and we're about to go into a really difficult game. One of those special players that now has even more experience is Will Anderson. Take me inside the locker room. You play with him. You're a teammate of his. What is Will Anderson like behind the scenes? Will's a great guy, man. Will's a great guy.

He's one of my really good friends. Love him on and off the field. He's a great leader. He's a great player. But he's an even better person. He's always joking around with us.

He's not one of those people who has a big head. He's never been one of those guys. He's just like everybody else. So he's a great teammate. How do you describe him on the field? Because what we saw him do last year was really special.

But you got to play side by side with him. So how do you describe his play on the field? I would say he's just relentless and just a nation. You know, everything he does, he does going 100. He doesn't make many mistakes.

And even if he makes a mistake, he's good enough to make it to where you don't even realize it. He's just so fast. He's so explosive. He's a great football player.

One of the best I've played with for sure. Is he the best player in college football in your opinion? That would be tough because I think we got a lot of great players all throughout college football. I think we have two of the best players on our team in Will and Bryce. I think we have a lot of guys on this team that I could say could probably be the best player in the country.

So I think that would be a tough one to answer. That's the thing about your team. When we look at the defense, it starts with Will Anderson. Then offensively, you have the reigning Heisman Trophy winner in Bryce Young. I don't think it gets much better than that when you look at the star player on offense and the star player on defense.

Both of those are great, great, great players, but even better people. You talked about it earlier, Byron Young, senior defensive lineman from Alabama, how you could have other guys play at other programs and be some of the better players in the country. Who are some of those other guys on your team that you want to give a little shine to that you've been impressed with this summer? I've really been impressed with everybody.

I think we've all come together this year. I think we've all put in a lot of work. We've seen some guys step up. We've seen some young guys like Jaheim Otis come in, lose a lot of weight and step up. We've seen guys like Jameer Gibbs come from Georgia Tech come in and look like he's going to have an impact right away. We've had a lot of guys really step up. I think everybody on this team deserves credit for stepping up and getting ready for this upcoming season. Byron Young, how did you step up this summer?

What did you really work on? I feel like this offseason I kind of had to work on my leadership and being more vocal. I'm not a guy who likes to say too much.

I'm not a guy who just likes to get in people's face. But I was tasked with being a leader this offseason. I was asked by some of the coaches, some of the other players said that that's what they expected of me. So that's really the biggest thing I think this offseason I had to work on. How do you work on that in terms of leadership? The biggest thing for me was just making sure I was doing everything the correct way. Because if you're a leader and you try to get other guys to do stuff the correct way, if they see you doing something wrong, then they really won't want to listen to you.

Because they'll say, oh, you're telling me to do one thing, but you were doing something else. So really just trying to be on top of everything even more than I have been in the past. Trying to be just vocal and not going out and just yelling at people. Trying to pull people aside and tell them this is how we do things.

Letting people know that I actually care and not just trying to reel people consistently. Byron Young here with Senior Defense Alignment from Alabama. Can you already believe that it's your senior year and you're about to enter year four at Alabama?

It's hard to believe. I feel like I just got here a few months ago. What advice would you give to a freshman as someone that was in your position three, four years ago? My advice would just be just put your head down and work. Don't come in wanting to just be the man right away. Put your head down and work.

And whenever it's your turn to play, you'll be ready. What led you to Alabama? Clearly it's Alabama.

It's a permanent program for college football in the country. But what made you want to go become a member of the Crimson Tide? I feel like I could get a great education here. I feel like when I was being recruited, the players here weren't just teammates. It was like a family.

They were all brothers. I can speak on that from being here now that that's how it is. All these guys here, these are guys that I'll talk to many years after I graduate. No matter what it is I might be doing after football. But it's a place that I feel like could be a second home for me. I feel like they would take care of me over here on and off of the field. I feel like they have my best interest in mind at all times.

So that's really one thing that I was looking for when I was choosing a school coming out of high school. When did it click for you that you were playing for Nick Saban and the thought just disappeared of, holy crap, I'm playing for the best coach maybe to ever participate in college football? I think it has clicked multiple times because being here we're so busy.

We're always looking at how we can improve and our next challenge. So I think at many times I've kind of just sat back and had to think about, I'm actually doing what I wanted to do when I was a little kid. I'm actually playing on TV. I'm playing in front of 100,000 people every Saturday.

So it's something that happens maybe once a month, once a week. It happens pretty often and it's something I'm just really, really thankful for. What are your favorite memories so far with Nick Saban and Byron Young? Favorite memories?

There's a lot of them. Some of my favorite memories actually just come from practice, just the small things he'll do in practice. Sometimes he might make a joke.

He might mumble something under his breath at you at practice and it'll just be something like that, just something small. Before we let you run, I want to ask you about a few of your former teammates. Just give me some quick thoughts on what this player meant to you or what you think they're going to do at the next level.

I want to start you off with Tua Tunga Vailoa. A lot of attention around him and a big year for the Dolphins. I was here with Tua my freshman year.

I talked to Tua a lot when I was here. He was one of those guys who, when I came in, he was really a superstar on the team. When you come out of high school, you kind of get starstruck by these guys. One of the biggest quarterbacks in college football when I came out. He was just a really good guy, really down to earth. He never got away from talking to me, never acted like he was too good to talk to me.

Always led by examples. He was a really good guy and I think he'll do great things at the next level. Mac Jones. Mac Jones was another really good guy. I came in and Mac was behind Tua and I got to play with him some day. I know he played in the Auburn game with us and then he played in the bowl game when we played Michigan State.

Not Michigan, sorry, Michigan. He was a guy who was also a leader. He was a guy who was also a leader. He was a guy who would talk a little bit of trash at practice of the defense.

He was a really smart guy but he, once again, met a great person. Was it surprising to you how seamless that transition was? Because you talk how Tua was bigger than life and then we saw what Mac Jones was able to do. It wasn't really surprising to me because I got to see Mac every day in practice for two years. Before he even got the opportunity to really show off to the rest of the country where we already in the building knew what he could do.

So, it wasn't really a surprise to me. How about Evan Neal? Evan Neal, man, he's one of the best players I've played against.

We've had a lot of battles for the three years that we were here together. He made me a lot better. I hope I made him a lot better. He was a really good guy, too.

A really good friend of mine. I talk to him all the time so I think he's really going to excel at the next level just because he's a work ethic. A few more for Byron Young, senior defense alignment from Alabama. Let's go to Najee Harris. Najee Harris was another really special guy, man. Najee Harris was another guy who, when I came in, he was kind of a superstar all over the country so I was a little bit star struck again.

Once again, man, another guy who never shied away from giving me advice or shied away from pushing me just because I know he wanted to keep the standard of Alabama what it was. He's a really great player. My oldest brother, Kendrick, is a really big fan of the Steelers. On draft night, my brother was really hoping that they would draft Najee and they did. I think he cried a little bit.

That's absolutely awesome. He's supposed to have another big season for the Terrible Towels with the Pittsburgh Steelers. What about Devontae Smith?

It's amazing. A guy could go catch a game-winning touchdown in the national championship game and it's not even the biggest moment from his career at Alabama. Because then we all saw what he was able to do his Heisman Trophy-winning season.

Yeah. I think Devontae, he was just like the other guys, a really hard worker. A guy who was a little bit more quiet.

I guess I would say in the public eye, he didn't seem like he spoke much but when he was around us, he was a guy who would talk. He was a guy who would talk trash at the beginning of every practice when we were warming up, going out there yelling, trying to just bring the energy every single day at practice. He was a special player. I'm really glad I got to play with a guy like him and know a guy like him. And then I'll ask you, I'll group these two together, Jalen Waddle and Jamison Williams. We'll end you on the wide receivers.

And those are two really, really great players, man. I was with Waddle for two years. He was another guy who never really shied away from talking to me.

He's a guy who I feel like if I needed to talk to him now or if I just wanted to holler at him, he'd answer the phone. J-Mo was another guy like that. He came in from Ohio State and he kind of embraced everything right away. It was obvious when he got here that he came in with a goal. His goal was to be the best wide receiver in the country. His goal was to help lead us to where we wanted to get in. He came in and he worked right away and he fit in right away with everybody.

He was a great guy and a great player. Last thing I'll ask you, Byron Young, how do you envision the senior season going for you? I just envision a lot of success, not just for myself but as a team. We're working. We worked all season. We've been working since January preparing for this first game that comes up Saturday. So I envision a lot of success. I envision just a lot of guys out there having fun together. Well, good luck coming up on Saturday night up against Utah State and throughout the entire season. We'll be watching. Thanks so much, Byron Young. Yes, sir. Thank you.