Alabama quarterback Bryce Young has made lucrative deals before starting

 Alabama quarterback Bryce Young has made lucrative deals before starting his first college game, but he doesn’t think that or the preseason hype surrounding him will be a distraction. To Young, the “culture” that Nick Saban has created for the program won’t allow it. “I think really it says a lot about Alabama, and it’s honestly not too hard with the coaching that we have,” Young said Thursday. “Coach Saban from Day 1 when all the external stuff started to pop up — and it’s been going on for a while with there being whatever distractions there may be — that’s something we preach a lot about making sure we keep the main thing the main thing. “We’ve talked a lot about that in-house, and that’s something that we live by.” Young spoke via Zoom in his first interview with reporters since arriving in Tuscaloosa as the country’s top dual-threat quarterback prospect in the class of 2020. Saban said in July that Young already had received Alabama football live online  nearly seven figures’ worth of name, image and likeness deals. The sophomore from California is set to replace Heisman Trophy finalist Mac Jones at quarterback when the Crimson Tide open Sept. 4 against Miami in Atlanta. Other than mop-up duties, Young hadn’t been seen all that much by Alabama fans before the spring game. Then he showed off his athleticism and arm, passing for 333 yards and a 59-yard touchdown to tight end Cameron Latu. The next game he suits up for will be real. Even while replacing Jones — and despite the Tide losing four other first-round NFL draft picks from the offense — Young will lead a team picked preseason No. 1 and favored to repeat as national champions. He’s OK with those expectations after leading high school powerhouse Mater Dei in Santa Ana, California, where he took over for current Georgia starter JT Daniels. “There obviously are expectations, but regardless of what happened in high school or any past experiences I’ve had, coming to Bama is where you come for pressure and come for expectations,” Young said. “Everyone here when they signed on the dotted line and decided to come here, we knew it was going to come with expectations.

 “Saban sets that standard for us immediately during recruiting and when we step into the building, so it’s not something I was blindsided by.” Expectations for Georgia’s football team have been sky-high since it advanced to the College Football Playoff national championship game in 2017. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they've fallen short of all of them. In 2018, Georgia was ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 to start the year and then won 11 of its first 12 games before losing a 14-point lead to Alabama in the SEC championship and falling out of the College Football Playoff picture. The Bulldogs fell again in the conference title game in 2019 and were ousted by Florida for the SEC East championship in 2020. The story entering Alabama football live streaming  this season was similar. The Bulldogs showed great promise in winning their last four games of 2020 and junior quarterback JT Daniels was one of the top four preseason favorites for the Heisman Trophy, according to Vegas Insider. Ranked No. 5 in the AP preseason Top 25, Georgia had a big opportunity to prove itself against No. 3 Clemson, which had advanced to the College Football Playoff in each of the past six seasons. This year, the Bulldogs proved they are out to meet — and perhaps exceed — the expectations with a 10-3 win over the Tigers in the Duke’s Mayo Classic in front of 74,187 fans at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday night. Georgia’s defense dominated the entire game, limiting Clemson to 180 total yards — and just 2 net yards rushing — and sacking sophomore quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei seven times. Its lone touchdown was a 74-yard interception return by senior safety Christopher Smith with 2:58 remaining in the second quarter. The Bulldogs forced five three-and-outs and punts on five of Clemson’s 10 drives. It was the first time the Tigers, who did not score until a 22-yard field goal from senior kicker BT Potter with 9:08 left in the fourth quarter, failed to score in the first half after a run of 143 consecutive games, the longest streak in the FBS. Sporting News provided live updates and highlights from the Bulldogs’ win over the Tigers.