Young Learned Valuable Lessons As A Freshman

Receiver Michael Young wanted to get on the field as a true freshman, and he accomplished it early in his career as he played in the first few games of 2017.

The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder then hit the freshman wall. Every freshman hits it, but it comes at different times. Young was frustrated but also admitted he wasn’t doing everything right.

“Coming in as a freshman, I truly wanted to play and make an impression on the coaches fast,” Young stated. “Luckily, I was able to do that. The problem with me was that it was the little things I was messing up a lot. Not being consistent with my alignments. Instead of being on top of the numbers, I was a yard inside the numbers. Things like that are very critical for certain routes because they are timing routes.” 

College football is very different from high school, and Young also admitted he didn’t fight through some of the physical challenges as hard as he could have. 

“The wear and tear on my body - we’re a fast tempo offense,” explained Young. “We’re going. We’re constantly running. You have to keep your body in shape. I was in shape, but there were days I couldn’t explode the way I wanted to. Being a freshman you kind of complain that you can’t do this because you’re too sore and that’s where I started to hit the freshman wall. I was letting the fatigue get to me.

“The coaching staff saw that and felt it was best to hold me back. Going through the process, it was tough because I played a lot in the first few games. It was tough to take a backseat and watch everything.” 

Pride is something important to the Louisiana native, and after some self-reflection, Young stepped up his game and fought through it to get on the field in the Citrus Bowl against LSU. 

“Towards the end of the season, my attitude started to change, and I knew I had to go and show what I did early,” said Young. “No complaints. Just all out. I kept doing that during the bowl prep and during the bowl week to get my chance against LSU.”

Now, the chance to play against LSU was big for Young as he grew up an hour away from Tiger Stadium and he took full advantage of his opportunity.

Young caught two passes for eight yards and one was for a crucial touchdown in the fourth quarter to allow Notre Dame to tie the game. 

The performance gave an already confident Young a confidence boost heading into the spring. 

“I’ve always been confident in what I can do, but I haven’t always put it on display,” Young explained. “I felt getting the chance and being able to show I can contribute gave me all the confidence in the world to go out this winter and spring to show the coaches that there is more. 

“Scoring that touchdown opened everything up for me. I was overwhelmed, honestly. That was the best experience I’ve had so far.” 

Notre Dame needed a big play to get momentum back after Vanderbilt scored a touchdown with just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter to cut the Irish lead to 22-17. 

Young took the ensuing kickoff 48 yards down the visiting sideline to swing momentum back in favor of the home team. 

The chance to return kicks has been a long time coming for Young as he had been pestering special teams coordinator Brian Polian for weeks. 

“I bugged him about it and bugged him about it, but then I got hurt,” stated Young. “The only thing he told me was to get healthy. Last week, Vanderbilt’s game plan was to kick to both returners, so he felt there was a need for Jafar (Armstrong) and I to be back there. 

“We came in that week, and he said ‘Did you see kickoff return?’. I told him I did and that I would have given him a big kiss but we were at practice.  He started laughing and said ‘Don’t disappoint me.’”

Young knew almost immediately it was going to be a big return as he saw a cease and took advantage of it. 

“As soon as I made the break, I saw a huge hole. I said, ‘Let’s ride,’” said Young. “Once I saw it, I just hit it. I was kind of disappointed the kicker was there. If he wasn’t there, I was out of there.”