Jumbo Package: Bryce Young finishes 6th in Heisman vote

Dec 9, 2022 - 3:48 PM

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Happy Friday, everyone. The hoops team plays at Houston tomorrow, and we will be along with additional coverage of that later. For today, we’ll open with Bryce Young’s Heisman finish.

The Heisman Trophy voting results are trickling out with the announcement of the top 10 Thursday night.

Alabama’s Bryce Young, the reigning winner, finished sixth in the voting in 2022. He was not one of the four finalists invited to the Saturday night ceremony in New York.

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker was at one point the favorite but finished one spot ahead of Young and one spot outside of finalist status after tearing his ACL late in the season.

Shehan Jeyarajah thinks that Alabama was one of the biggest losers this year.

The Crimson Tide received 54 of the 63 first-place votes in the preseason AP Top 25 and seemed to be the overwhelming favorite to win the national championship with the best offensive (Bryce Young) and defensive (Will Anderson) players in the nation. However, the Tide were not their usual selves during a middling 10-2 campaign — a program floor by Alabama standards. Alabama was 1-6 against the spread against winning teams and needed hectic finishes just to beat Texas and Texas A&M. It also ranked 127th out of 131 teams in penalties per game. Instead of ending with three straight SEC title, championship weekend featured Nick Saban pandering for a playoff spot. With Young, who is the heart and soul of a flawed team, likely off to the NFL, there will be plenty of soul-searching to do in Tuscaloosa.

Saban discussed the impact of so many transfers.

“Well, those were experienced players that were in backup positions. Those were experienced players that were playing on special teams. So now you’re taking younger players and they’re moving up into those slots with less experience. So that’s how that’s kind of impacted our team.”

Some of the players Alabama lost before the 2022 season were, “some of the best backup players we had on our team,” Saban later said.

“And they were all older players that had been in the program for a long time, that set a good example,” he continued during his Nov. 3 radio show. “They were good leaders, and they were good players.

Tanner Bowles found himself a logical home.

In a surprise appearance on KSR, Bowles announced his commitment to Kentucky.

“After taking a couple of visits and just talking to my family I’ve decided I’m going to be committing to the University of Kentucky,” Bowles exclaimed.

Bowles, who is originally from Glasgow (KY), comes to Lexington by way of Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. After spending the last four seasons playing at Bryant Denny Stadium, Bowles will now look to bolster an offensive-line this is going through a slight revamp from this past season.

Former Alabama player Lance Taylor got himself a promotion.

At both stops, Taylor developed a reputation as a strong recruiter, including landing Bryce Love at Stanford and Chris Tyree and Logan Diggs at Notre Dame. He also spent two seasons in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers in 2017-18. Taylor began his career as a Nick Saban graduate assistant at Alabama. He’s an Alabama graduate and former special teams captain.

Taylor’s first season at WMU is scheduled to include games at Syracuse, Mississippi State and Iowa.

Last, Baby Rhino put up another 100+ yard performance last night, albeit in a losing effort.

Jacobs leads the NFL in rushing with 1402 yards.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.