Just one quarter into Saturday night’s season-opening 55-0 obliteration of Utah State at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Alabama already had a 17-0 cushion and a familiar swagger enriched by the arrival of two transfers from the neighboring state of Georgia.

Bryce Young has two new offensive toys, as if the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner needed that much more help, and they were already in midseason form in the first quarter of their first game in maroon and white.

Jahmyr Gibbs, the transfer from Georgia Tech, showed he can be a bruising runner and a skilled receiver out of the backfield. And receiver Jermaine Burton was showing Bama fans he can be just as dynamic when he’s on their side as he was as an enemy in last year’s national title game loss.

Burton scored the first of what will likely be many touchdowns in 2022 on a 3rd-and-goal from the 5-yard line just 9:05 into his Crimson Tide tenure, catching Young’s laser throw in stride in the back of the end zone to help prevent Bama from being held to a field goal for the second consecutive drive to begin the game.

Burton said another warm hello to his new, delirious fan base early in the second quarter, catching a 2-yard TD from Young to make it 24-0 over an overmatched Aggies team that actually put up 31 points in its season-opening win over UConn last Saturday. But this wasn’t UConn, and though it’s only one game of what Nick Saban hopes will be a 15-game journey, this apparently isn’t the 2021 Crimson Tide offense Young directed while winning the Heisman.

It just might be a whole lot better, thanks to those transfers from the state of Georgia, of all places. Last season, Young became the first Tide quarterback to throw 4 touchdown passes in his starting debut in the blowout of Miami. He already had 4 TD passes with a little over 10 minutes left in the second quarter on Saturday, adding 2 scoring strikes to Traeshon Holden, who along with freshman Kobe Prentice is sure to benefit greatly from Burton’s mere presence.

By the time the first half ended it was 41-0, Saban was well on his way to being 16-0 in season openers and the Tide was rolling to its 21st consecutive season-opening victory. Junior running back Jase McClellan, who is sure to benefit from Gibbs’ presence like the receivers will with Burton, caught Young’s 5th TD pass of the first half with 15 seconds left to put the finishing touches on an almost perfect first 30 minutes of the 2022 season.

Young had 291 yards of offense all by himself by halftime — 195 passing and 96 rushing — and was just 2 TD passes from tying the SEC record for scoring passes in a game. He finished with 100 yards rushing — leading all Bama ball-carriers. But Young was the most known quantity for this Bama offense coming into the season. He won the Heisman in his first year as the starting quarterback. Everybody at Bryant-Denny Stadium knew the damage he could do when the lights came on.

They also knew about Holden. And McClellan. And even Prentice, an in-state high school phenom from Calera, who had 5 catches for 60 yards in the first half of his very first game. It was those two guys from that neighboring state, the state with the rival team that broke Bama’s hearts in January and kept Saban from his 7th national title at Bama.

This season, it might be the state of Georgia that helps put Bama back over the top. Right on cue, on the first play from scrimmage of the second half, Gibbs ripped off a 58-yard run to the Utah State 7-yard line. Gibbs ran it again for 3 yards, setting up Young’s first TD run of the game and a 48-0 lead.

Young was pulled for Jalen Milroe on the next series, his explosive first encore to 2021 complete. As Young stood on the sideline for the rest of the rout, he had to smile and wonder aloud if Burton, with his 5 catches and 2 touchdowns, and Gibbs, with his 93 yards rushing, might just make that second Monday night in January a little different this time.