As Steve Young surveys the landscape of college football and takes stock of the offensive revolution that has reshaped the NFL, he looks back at his own career with some regret. Where were all the wide-open formations, RPO plays and passer-driven concepts when he was playing?

“The game has changed in a really cool way,” he told AL.com this week. “I’ll admit it. I’m super jealous…The idea that I sat under center every down my whole life it makes me want to throw up in my mouth.”

Young is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in part, because of his ability to take five-to-seven-step drops and deliver precise throws to the talented San Francisco receivers in his midst during an 11-year run with the 49ers franchise that ended in 1998.

But he recognizes the advantages of lining up in Shotgun, which has become a Crimson Tide staple as the program’s braintrust has increasingly incorporated the Spread into what Nick Saban likes to call the “Alabama Offense.”

“I think everything is easier from there,” Young explained, referring to the quarterback’s position at five yards behind center.

Then, upon considering what he had just said, Young revised his comment slightly.

“Getting a running back to the line of scrimmage is harder,” he said. “It just is. So, I do think there is a problem there.”

Word around Alabama is the Crimson Tide has made a concerted effort to make Tua Tagovailoa more comfortable operating from under center, in part, because it could help improve the Tide’s performance in the red zone after experiencing shortfalls in that area last season.

As the Crimson Tide set records for production and went on to average more points than all but two FBS teams in 2018, Alabama underwhelmed once it crossed the opponent’s 20-yard line. On 79 possessions that carried past that point, the Tide scored 65 times — an 82.3-percent success rate ranked 78th-best in the nation.

The problems Alabama experienced in that condensed part of the field came to a head last January, when Clemson crushed the Tide, 44-16, in the national championship game. During that miserable evening in the Bay Area, the Tide scored one touchdown in its four trips inside the red zone, executing 13 of its 18 plays out of Shotgun once it cracked the Tigers’ 20.

During the one sequence when Alabama did breach the goal line, Tagovailoa lined up under center behind a jumbo package and completed a play-action bootleg on a one-yard toss to tight end Hale Hentges, who was wide open.

“I think he’s very comfortable with what he’s doing right now whether it’s under center or in the gun,” Saban said of the junior quarterback. “I think the key to the drill in the red zone is you have to be able to run the ball. If you can’t run the ball in the red area when the field shrinks, it gets really hard to throw it down there.”

“Windows get small, you've got to get rid of the ball more quickly, make quicker decisions and everything closes up faster so when you can run the ball and create favorable down and distance you have a better chance to keep the defense off balance. That's one of the areas we want to improve in on both sides of the ball is red-area efficiency.”

It’s a charge Saban presented to new offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, whose philosophy is rooted in Pro Style principles. Last season, while shepherding the Falcons’ attack in the NFL, Atlanta ran exactly half of its red-zone plays from under center, according to the website, sharpfootballstats.com.

“If we have to do it this year, I don't see a big problem with it,” Tagovailoa said. “Just…grabbing the ball from the center and dropping back. It’s pretty much the same thing.”

Young though knows that’s not really true. As much as it is harder to execute for the quarterback because his vantage point is limited, it makes the running back’s job that much easier by reducing the ground he has to cover just to advance the ball into positive territory.

“You can’t take advantage of a great tailback in the Shotgun as much,” Young said. “It’s just hard.”

Even more so when that ball carrier has to find yards in a congested area like the red zone.

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin