Coaches heap praise on Alabama QB Bryce Young ahead of CFP title game vs. Georgia

INDIANAPOLIS — Georgia coach Kirby Smart saw enough of Alabama quarterback Bryce Young a month ago to know what the Bulldogs are up against Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship presented by AT&T.

“We talk about him as Houdini, because he can make people miss,” Smart said Sunday. “He gets rid of the ball. People don’t even account for the number of times this guy has avoided sacks and thrown the ball with no intention of anybody catching it. But he knows where to throw the ball to not take a sack. When you can do that, you’re really elite.”

Young, this season’s Heisman Trophy winner, set an SEC championship game record with 461 yards of total offense in Alabama’s 41-24 win over Georgia in Atlanta. He passed for three touchdowns and ran for another against a Georgia defense that had allowed only seven touchdowns in 48 quarters entering that game. Young led the Crimson Tide to three touchdowns in the first half.

In his first season as a starter, Young has thrown 46 touchdown passes and just five interceptions. He is fifth nationally in passer rating, one spot behind Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett.

“[Young] has really good weapons around him, he’s got a really good team around him, but make no mistake, he is elite at what he does,” Smart said. “To have the number of touchdown passes, the interception ratio, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen really anything like that.”

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said Young’s ability to prepare for a game and study an opponent is as good as anybody he has had at Alabama and that his steadiness wears off on his teammates.

“He’s a leader, and he’s got sort of an emotional stability about him that he doesn’t really get frustrated or upset in any kind of way even when things don’t go well,” Saban said. “He can stay focused and keep doing what he thinks he needs to do to be able to have success and make adjustments, adapt to what he needs to do. He’s a very, very mature guy, way beyond his years in…