SOUTH BEND – In some ways, it’s not fair that Notre Dame football defensive end Bryce Young is there.
True freshmen need time to adapt and adjust and understand that this isn’t high school. What made them stand out on Friday nights doesn’t always work on Saturday afternoons. It takes time. It takes reps. It takes games. It might take years before they tap into that something that sends them toward special.
A four-star recruit who might develop somewhere down the line, Young did it in his first season.
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Did it on special teams, where he became a terror with his ability to get to the right place at the right time and stick those long, lanky arms up and knock down kicks. Did it as a backup end on a veteran defense that needed him here and there when someone needed a break.
Did it from start to finish during the longest season in program history.
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Coming into college, he was counseled by his father, Hall of Famer Bryant Young, plenty on what to expect as a freshman. How the season would be a grind. How there would be good times. How there would be tough times. How it all would take time.
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Young never expected to experience all he experienced in 2024. Never expected to do what he did. He’s still a freshman as Notre Dame rolls through spring practice, but in football years, Young dropped that tag long ago.
He’s something else now. Something else when he lines that 6-foot-7 (6-7!), 260-pound frame at defensive end and prepares to wreak havoc. Something else that few get to in their careers. Ever.
Young is a beast.
That’s why it’s not fair that he’s there.
“He already is a beast, man,” defensive line coach Al Washington admitted Wednesday. “How close is he to taking the next big step? I think he’s very close.”
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How close? Ask someone on the other side of the ball who occasionally must figure out Young in drills. Pass block him. Run block him. Slow him. Right tackle Aamil Wagner sometimes has the right answer for Young, but it isn’t always easy.
“He has the ability to be an All-American,” said Wagner, the only Irish offensive lineman to start all 16 games last season. “He has the skill set to do it. He’s going to be somebody who will be special.”
Young was a special teams staple last season from the first game at Texas A&M. He played a little the first few weeks, but something happened in the 28 days between the win at Purdue in September and the win at Georgia Tech in October.
Everything about the game, everything about his role, started to make sense. It’s not necessarily that the game slowed for him. It’s that everything about the game brought clarity. To his assignment. To the season.
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If he had a question, he could query veterans Howard Cross III or Rylie Mills. Have concerns? Go talk to Coach Wash. Have a chance to make an impact? Go and make an impact. Be great.
“Playing fast was my main goal,” Young said. “Between Purdue and Georgia Tech, that was when I was like, ‘All right. Let’s go.’”
Young played in all 16 games. He made 23 tackles with 1.5 sacks. He blocked a team-high three kicks, as many as the rest of the Irish combined. An early enrollee who got his first dose/taste of college football last spring, Young figured it out fast that if he was going to get on the field – especially on that loaded defense – he’d have to do it on special teams.
That could get him on the field. If he did something on special teams, that would keep him on the field. He got on the field; he stayed on the field.
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Young was special on special teams because he didn’t have to think about it. Or overthink it. It reached a point late in 2024 that a Notre Dame football game didn’t feel official until Young blocked or nearly blocked a punt. Or an extra point.
“Just go,” he said of playing special teams. “That’s really it.”
With that size and that mindset, Young often looked head and shoulder pads above everyone. He insists that he never hit that proverbial wall that flattens nearly every freshman during their first seasons. He didn’t hit it in September. Didn’t hit it in October or most of November.
Come season’s end, after the win over USC in Los Angeles that clinched a College Football Playoff spot, Young admitted that he wore down.
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“My mentality helped carry me through when my body was physically lacking,” he said. “We had a long break (after USC), and I caught my second wind. I was like, ‘All right, let’s go.’
“I was ready for the playoffs.”
The playoffs weren’t ready for Young. His consecutive running the punter penalties on the opening drive of the Sugar Bowl had the Georgia special teams chasing/seeing shadows the rest of the day. He tallied a season-tying best four tackles in the Orange Bowl against Penn State. It set the stage for a 2025 that may include a bigger dose of Young in coordinator Chris Ash’s defense.
It took Young a minute to realize he could do some stuff in the new system. Like, yeah, this will work. It will work fine.
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“It’s going to be a fun defense to play in,” he said. “I’m excited.”
Opposing offensive linemen, not so much. Trying to stop Young will get old.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football will need this defensive end to be good in 2025
