Kedren Young Trying to Find a Role in Notre Dame's Loaded Backfield
Notre Dame had one of the best backfields in the country last season and they’ve returned 96% of the carries that came from running backs.
Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, and Aneyas Williams had the majority of those carries. Gi’Bran Payne is also back after recovering from a torn ACL last spring. He had 45 carries and nine catches as Notre Dame’s primary third down back in 2023.
The depth chart is crowded to say the least. It may not be ideal timing for Kedren Young to crack into that top group, but he’s different from the other backs he’s competing with.
At 235 pounds, he’s over 20 pounds heavier than the next heaviest back on the roster. He’s eight pounds heavier than Audric Estime was in his final season at Notre Dame. Young is up five pounds from last year and that added weight makes him tougher to tackle.
“I feel like yes,” Young said. “I have a wider base, my shoulders and stuff like that.”
Young had only 21 carries as a freshman in three games against Purdue, Stanford, and Navy. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry and showed why he’s not an easy guy to get on the ground.
What makes Young unique is how good his feet are for someone his size. His lateral movement looks very similar to the other backs on the team despite that extra weight. Some of that came from his background playing multiple sports when he was younger.
“I actually was a big basketball guy and a big baseball guy,” Young explained. “Baseball really was my sport. And then when I got to middle school, I started playing football. I found I was really good at football, and when I got to high school it was just my sport. I just stuck to it.”
In other seasons, it would be a no-brainer for Young to have a role in the offense this fall. The path to playing time isn’t clear, though. Love should probably have more, not less touches this season. He will probably be the best back in college football this fall. Price is going to be a better player than he was a season ago and is a threat to break a big play any time he touches the ball. Both Payne and Williams are talented enough to earn expanded roles too.
These are all good problems for new running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider to deal with. He’s letting the backs compete this spring and letting it play itself out.
“I don't even worry about that right now,” stated in regards to juggling six running backs this spring. “Don't worry about the reps. Make the reps count. That's kind of been my motto.”
Seider also knows what he has coming back and that playing more than three backs consistently isn’t feasible.
“The best players will separate. Or it could be even, right? But we kind of know we gotta dude (Love) that's pretty different here. We got another guy (Price) that played a lot of reps,” Seider said.
“You also got to play to their strength. If your kid can't do this, don't make him do that. And that's what we got to do a good job throughout the week game planning. That's not going to go into a game playing five running backs. That's impossible. That's not going to happen. I did one time with four, and that was hard. You can play with three, because you can do some things. And really it kind of goes to who we are.”
The key for Young will be distinguishing what he can do at a high-level that makes him stand out within the group. The more he can do that in practice, the more it can influence Seider to give him opportunities and possibly even for offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock to tweak what they do this season.
As Seider communicated last week, they haven’t settled on who they exactly are on offense yet for 2025. They have a lot of backs who can do a lot of different things and it may mean they play more 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end).
Young is trying to carve out his own role so he can be a part of who Notre Dame ends up being on offense. If that happens, then everyone should have high expectations for him because everyone knows how good any back will have to be to earn playing time for the Irish.
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