Notre Dame Football

Q/A | Michael Young Jr. on Notre Dame WR Coach Mike Brown

By Matt Freeman

December 7, 2023

16,871

The Notre Dame football program needed to make a timely hire at the receiver coach position and it appears Marcus Freeman has done just that as the hiring of Mike Brown is expected to be finalized in the coming days.

While the background and all that happens, we caught up with one of Brown’s former players, Michael Young Jr.

In fact, it’d be hard to find a player who knows Brown and Notre Dame better as Young started his career in South Bend before playing his final two years at Cincinnati where he was an All-AAC selection in 2020.

Young is currently living in Houston after spending some time with the Texans and was gracious enough to share his time earlier this week.

ISD: What kind of personality does Brown have off the field and in the meeting rooms with his guys?

Young: “What you see in the meeting room is what you get off the field. Super cool guy and very detailed about everything. Details are his thing. He loves the game. He really, really loves the game, the position as he played it in the league. Super cool, super relatable - a player's coach. We kind of throw that word around loosely these days just for guys who are nice and can have a conversation with their players, but he’s the true definition of a player’s coach.

“I think he knows how the business goes whether it’s at the collegiate level, the NFL level and the fact he’s also younger, so he knows how to relate to guys our age. He was just a super dope coach.”

ISD: When you arrived at Cincinnati, you weren’t building your game like a freshman would, but where did he help you the most and I guess what did you see from him when it came to developing some of those young players?

Young: “When you look at it, he had four receivers make it to the NFL during my time there and there will most likely be more to come. He had me, Alec Pierce (Colts), Tre Tucker (Raiders) and Tyler Scott, who plays for the Bears. That’s a spitting image of proof in the pudding. It’s about the details.

“He helped the room by teaching us the game along with the many techniques of playing the position. It was never a ‘just go out and do.’ He took his time and taught us what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and knowing what everyone else does. Made the game much easier for us.

“He’s not a coach where he’s teaching the position and that’s it. Some coaches teach this is our concept and this is what we’re going to run. He’s more like this is why we’re running the concept, this is why we’re running it against this coverage and this is why you need to run this route at this depth and get here at this time because the quarterback is reading X-Y-Z and you need to be in this window in order for him to find you.

“He goes into specifics because he doesn’t ever want it to be ‘your receiver took too long to run the route’ or ‘he didn’t run the right route’ or ‘he ran this route not knowing his route was supposed to clear out for somebody else.’

“When I say he’s in the details, that’s how detailed he is. He leaves no stone unturned. That’s his coaching style.”

ISD: Building off of that, does he teach you what the defenses are trying to do as well as another layer so his players have a better understanding of how to attack?

Young: “Yeah. When he’s introducing new concepts depending on the team we were playing, we’ll have a whole session of just breaking down coverages showing what they like to do and don’t like to do and what a defense is trying to take away when playing a certain coverage. He’s very detailed in that.

“That was a whole section of our meeting at Cincinnati. It was breaking the opposing team and all their coverages and what they were trying to take away. When we introduced the new concepts, then he correlated it to why we started this play like this because they like to run this on this down versus this look and this is what we think we’re going to get when we line up in this formation. He’s very detailed in that aspect.”

ISD: When it comes to communication, does Coach Brown have an open-door policy? What were the conversations like when you were doing well and when you were struggling?

Young: “He and I still text to this day. That says it all if you know what I mean. He’s one of those guys, man. I never felt comfortable texting a coach. We used to joke all the time about where I’m from in New Orleans. He’d see something on Instagram or something and he would think it’s funny and send it to me.

“That’s how personable he can be. Open door policy times 10. When it’s time to coach, it’s time to coach. When I say that, I don’t mean he’s super hard to work with. He’s going to coach you, but he also understands the dynamic and understands the game from our perspective, which I think helps a lot. When you get a coach who understands you, what you’re going through whether you’re the leading guy in the room or trying to work your way up, he understands every aspect of it. H

“He knows how to boost everybody, but how to differentiate things between certain players and that’s huge for a coach who has that ability.”

ISD: I know it was different in your situation going from one college to another, but what stood out to you as he was initially building that relationship with you and what makes him an efficient recruiter?

Young: “He’s real, man. He’s genuine. You don’t get that much in college recruiting. You know how it is. It’s genuine. Maybe because I was in college I was seasoned, so his recruiting was different with me. Seeing the high school recruits who were considering Cincinnati, he was genuine and real.

“One time, he came to see me at Barbici on Eddy St. and we were talking about our process. He never bad-mouthed the school. He didn’t bad mouth Notre Dame or any other schools recruiting me. I was telling him this school said this or that, but he never got defensive or combative. He said he wasn’t going to tell me what to do or where you should go or why Cincinnati fits you. He just said we’re not in the business of bad-mouthing anyone. If you want to come here, it’s because you like what we’re doing.

“Once he did that, it was over. That was that. He didn’t need to sell me on how it was going to be if I went there. It was what you see is what you get and that’s exactly what I got when I got there.

“I’ve been there. High school kids love to hear they can come in and be one of the best receivers walking in or one of the top guys or we can make you this. That’s not his game. He wants a real connection. He wants to know who you are because he’s going to see the type of player you are on film. Whatever else happens is extra. He just wants to be real with you and he wants that reciprocated.”

ISD: You’ve been at Notre Dame and know how everything works. How does Brown fit into Notre Dame’s environment and the type of student-athletes Notre Dame brings in?

Young: “He’s going to blend in well. He’s a guy who can blend, which is what you need and it goes back to him understanding every player is different. Not every player can do this and not every player can do that. He just knows how to coach. He knows how to adapt and that’s huge at Notre Dame.

“Whether you’re in the football aspect or just the life aspect around South Bend, you have to adapt, especially if you’re not from there because it’s different. His experience with life, playing the sport at the highest level, has offered him a different perspective than a lot of coaches.

“He’s going to be fine. He’s competitive whether it’s the JUGs machine, route running, blocking, etc. That’s what you want. I was on the JUGS machine one time doing one-hand catches and he walked up and said I couldn’t get five in a row. I ripped off five of them and he was like, ‘Alright, I’ll be back.’

“You want that from a coach. That gives you confidence. Your coach is willing to bet on you 10 times out of 10 because he’s that competitive and he truly feels it. It’s not fluff and he’s not going to talk to just talk even though he did sometimes with our DBs. You can imagine Sauce (Gardner) and Coby (Bryant) getting riled up, but there’s always truth in it because he feels his guys are always the best and be better. He’s going to demand it and show it, which breeds more confidence. He’ll be fine for sure.”