Before Steve Sarkisian was hired as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, the Crimson Tide was no longer a factor in Bryce Young’s recruitment.

Young hadn’t heard from Alabama in months, not much — if it all — since former Tide quarterbacks coach Dan Enos attended one of Young’s games in October 2018.

That changed in early February, shortly after four-star quarterback Carson Beck decommitted from Alabama.

That’s when Sarkisian began the process of rebuilding the Tide’s relationship with Young, a process that culminated seven months later with the blue-chip quarterback from California flipping his commitment from USC to Alabama during an official visit to Tuscaloosa over the weekend.

“Alabama really wasn’t on our radar," Young’s father, Craig, said, “but it intensified again when Coach Sarkisian came back to the program and became the offensive coordinator.”

Sarkisian has been familiar with Young since 2014, when he was the head coach at USC and Young was in middle school.

Young’s father remembers Sarkisian and others from that Trojans staff being blown away when Young — as a seventh-grader — led a 12th grade team to the championship game during a 7-on-7 tournament at USC.

Now, Young is one of the top-ranked quarterbacks in the 2020 recruiting class and will soon join Sarkisian’s quarterback room at Alabama.

With Tua Tagovailoa in position to turn pro after the season, Young — the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback and No. 4 overall player in next year’s recruiting class according to 247Sports’ individual rankings — could have a chance to compete for the Tide starting QB job as a true freshman.

And, as Sarkisian has told him, he’ll be within an offensive scheme that isn’t that dissimilar from what he runs in high school at Mater Dei.

“The system was Coach Sarkisian’s primary focus (with his recruiting pitch),” Young’s father said. “To his credit, he didn’t do any negative recruiting or talking about what USC was or was not or how Alabama stacked up to SC or anything like that. We didn’t talk much about SC at all. It was more about the system, how the system is so similar to what Bryce runs at Mater Dei, how important it is to have a multiple system — a system where you use the tight end, you go under center sometimes and have different formations and different protections — and how that can prepare you for the next level if Bryce is so blessed to be able to do that. Those are the things that were really important and resonated with us.”

There had been a growing buzz in the recruiting world leading up to this past weekend that Young — who had been committed to USC since July 2018 — could be on the verge of flipping his commitment to Alabama.

For the family, the visit to Tuscaloosa sealed the deal.

Young sat in on meetings with the team on Friday. The family was then able to spend time with Nick Saban, Sarkisian and others before and after the Tide’s win over Southern Miss, including during a Sunday breakfast session at Saban’s home.

In addition, Young — who plans to be a sports broadcasting major — was able to tour Alabama’s campus with his family and learn about the school’s sports broadcasting program.

In between all of that, Young watched as Tagovailoa continued to thrive within Sarkisian’s offense, tying a school-record with five touchdown passes against Southern Miss.

The early season success for Tagovailoa under Sarkisian is something else, according to Young’s father, that factored into his son’s decision-making process.

“It was a gradual buildup (in terms of interest),” Young’s dad said. “... Some of the things that kind of us led in that direction was obviously the first couple weeks of the season and just how well Tua performed and how good the offense looked. It was really evaluating the recruiting class and looking at how strong the recruiting class and offensive line class is and how young the receivers are there and how the program is built to sustain excellence and be there a long time. And then, it was getting down there and really being able to see how rabid the fan base is and how much Alabama football means and how the staff puts the athletes first — and not just athletically, but also socially, physically and academically in the best position to succeed.

“It’s also the track record with winning — you’re talking about being able to compete for national championships — and then you’re talking also about the possibility of Tua leaving early and there being an open competition at the quarterback position. When you weigh all those things, it became something that was more and more evident that this was the best decision and the best fit for Bryce.”

Young informed Saban of his decision to commit Sunday afternoon, a couple hours before he made his announcement on social media.

Seated with the family inside of his office, Saban asked Young at one point: So how do you feel about everything?

It was then — seven months after that initial conversation with Sarkisian — that Young made the announcement to Saban, that Alabama is where he wants to play his college football.

Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.