Alabama's Bryce Young Wins 2021 Maxwell Award

Alabama quarterback Bryce Young has been named the 2021 Maxwell Award winner as the best all-around player in the nation. 

Young beat Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett and Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III to win the honor, which was announced Thursday at The Home Depot College Football Awards.

Alabama is starting to have a monopoly on this award. Young is the fifth player in program history to win it, and all five have come since 2013. 

A.J. McCarron (2013), Derrick Henry (2015), Tua Tagovailoa (2018) and DeVonta Smith (2020) previously won the Maxwell Award. 

Head coach Nick Saban and his staff continue to do a remarkable job of keeping their performance consistent from year to year, despite losing more talent than any other program to the NFL. 

Young had the difficult task of replacing Mac Jones under center for the Crimson Tide. Jones finished third in Heisman voting last year, leading the nation with 4,500 passing yards, 311 completions and a 77.4 completion percentage. 

Despite having no starting experience coming into 2021, Young has thrived and was a significant reason Alabama remained one of the nation's best teams. He finished with 4,322 passing yards, a 68.0 completion percentage and 43 passing touchdowns. 

Even in the Crimson Tide's loss to Texas A&M on Oct. 9, Young threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns. 

No other program in the country can match Alabama's talent on a year-to-year basis. The team lost Jones, Smith, Jaylen Waddle, Patrick Surtain II, Alex Leatherwood and Najee Harris just in the first round of this year's NFL draft. 

Thanks to the development of Young, and others, the Crimson Tide went 12-1 and earned the No. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff field after beating Georgia 41-24 in the SEC Championship Game. Young dominated in that matchup with 421 passing yards and three scores in addition to 40 rushing yards and one more touchdown.