Notre Dame End Bryce Young Worked Hard To Go From Awkward To All-American
High school years can always be awkward. Being a high school athlete can help alleviate some of the awkwardness that goes with going from childhood to adolescence, but it can also put those changes, especially dramatic ones, on display for everyone to see.
Case in point, current Notre Dame freshman Bryce Young. The current Irish defensive end was high school teammates with fellow early enrollee wide receiver Micah Gilbert at Charlotte (N.C.) Christian. Gilbert saw firsthand the growth spurt that his high school and college teammate went through.
"Going into sophomore year, me and Bryce were probably the same size and Bryce was playing receiver at the time,” Gilbert explained. "He was still growing into himself, all clumsy (and) just bumping into stuff everywhere, he goes and he’s playing receiver. He can’t catch at all. Can’t catch for nothing. But then, we’re going throughout the year, he’s just shooting up.”
"It was a bad phase,” Young joked of his growth spurt.
He went from a 6-2 as a high school freshman to 6-6 by the time his junior year was over. On top of the spurt, Young didn’t even start to play organized tackle football until high school.
"Freshman year was my first year playing,” Young explained. "So I was still trying to find my position on the field. It was like, okay, receiver, I did that one year. I played a little linebacker, so I started going to on the ball linebacker, and then that grew into being a D-end by my sophomore-junior year.”
Gilbert watched the awkward phase, but he also watched Young work to build himself up as a player.
"(He) still looked like he’s growing into his body, but it just became an explosion once he got to that junior/senior year,” Gilbert noted. "The work he put in though to get there really showed on the field. I was there to see all that. I would see him on the field working super hard. I know he worked with his dad a lot. The work he put in is what the outcome came of it, Bryce is going be the real deal.”
The awkward growth spurt and the late start in football didn’t hinder Young. Maybe it helps to have a dad like Bryant Young, who was an All-American at Notre Dame in 1993, a Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers and a 2022 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.
The elder Young started his coaching career as a grad assistant at Notre Dame in 2009 and worked his way up the ranks in the field. He coached on Will Muschamp’s Florida staff as defensive line coach in 2011 and 2012 and held that same position with the Atlanta Falcons, beginning with their 2017 Super Bowl team. He left the professional ranks and worked on the Charlotte Christian staff with Bryce.
"Him being my dad, I had to learn to trust him more,” Young remarked. "Just because he's dad, doesn't mean he knows more things outside of football. During my sophomore year, I really came to him. I was like 'You have to break down film, you know this stuff’. We definitely went through a lot of film together, watching old tape, watching guys I like to watch in the NFL today, just learning keys, learning pre-snap and all that.
"We used to have a rule where football was on the field or anytime I asked,” Young continued. "Other than that, he was dad. We definitely had strong boundaries between that, so I know which was which. There were definitely some times where we bumped heads because the line would kind of get fuzzy, but for sure, there was a fine line between dad and coach. When coach was on, I was all ears. I was listening and taking in everything I can.”
Young blossomed in a short amount of time after moving to defensive end. He camped at Notre Dame and the feedback he got from Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden and defensive line coach Al Washington sparked a new fire in him.
"I was just out there doing what I do best, and they saw something in me I didn't see in myself yet,” Young recalled. "They threw the offer out, and I was like 'Man, if they believe in me, I have to believe in myself more’. So, it came to put in the work to progress even further. I feel like that definitely helped — them seeing something in me I didn't see sparked something for sure.”
Young knows how to compete. He was on the track team and wrestled in high school as well. His competitive streak and his self-described ‘motor’ have helped him through the awkward phases that came with his growth spurt to push him to where he is now.
"That's one of the biggest things, especially on the D-line, being a D-end, I feel like my motor is going to carry me even when my technique lacks,” Young remarked. "When I'm learning technique and stuff, being able to work hard and finish every drill. That's going to teach me a lot a lot of things, too.”
The defensive end grew up playing flag football, basketball and soccer before his high school football days. Young is currently listed at 241 pounds. He said he hopes to be closer to 255-260 after his first spring at Notre Dame.
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