Bryce Young will helm the Alabama offense in the Iron Bowl for the first time on Saturday. While the Crimson Tide quarterback had a brief spell on the field last season in place of Mac Jones, the sophomore will take center stage against Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium in the most intense rivalry in college football.

Young, of course, has always followed the game and had an awareness of what the Iron Bowl was all about. It wasn’t until the Southern California native arrived in Tuscaloosa that he received an up close and personal view of the weight of the annual event.

“When I first got (to Tuscaloosa), I think I was at a Walmart or something, and there was someone in full Auburn gear,” Young recounted on Monday. “Being back home, there’s UCLA and USC [and] you see people with (that gear) on all the time…(and) people just go around and it’s business as usual.

“But I saw somebody in full Auburn attire, and you could tell everyone was looking at him weird, and people were giving him dirty looks. Seeing that, that kind of showed me how much it met as a community and as a state, just how big this rivalry is.”

Kickoff between Alabama and Auburn from Jordan-Hare Stadium is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.