Young Relishing His New Opportunity
He’s loud, he’s proud, and he’s going to be relentless until the end of the play. Always the vocal type, that part of Kenric Young’s game is that much more amplified now that he’s found a home on the defensive side of the ball.
“There’s something about it. I can’t put my finger on it,” said Young. “Honestly, when I was on offense—okay, I can talk, but you gotta watch out what you say, you can’t keep on talking. With defense you just go out there like Coach Scalley says, you gotta play relentless and go out there every day and play relentless and hustle to the ball.”
It’s nothing personal when he’s talking, he just wants to hype up the game. A well-regarded receiver out of high school, his confidence was apparent early on, but it hadn’t been able to translate into production. However, year after year, Young has kept a team-first attitude.
“I had to switch up and make a better change for the team,” said Young. “It wasn’t (that) I wasn’t getting playing time over there, it was just a better opportunity at corner, right now. They were low on numbers and they needed someone to play right away.”
Young, a senior, knows a thing or two about getting a second chance when it comes to football. Last summer, when allegations about off the field behavior came out, he didn’t know if he was going to be able to keep playing. Coach Whittingham gave him a second chance.
“I relish every single day on it,” said Young. “Every day I look back and say man thank you because Coach Whitt could have honestly said, you know, he had some troubles, it’s affecting the team, we got to let him chase his dream somewhere else. But, he kept me here and ever since then, I’ve kept moving, he kept on me. I talk to Coach Whitt and tell him every day, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why I go hard out here for him, especially on this punt team. He could have let me go and he came and gave me a second chance. Now, I’m a big contributor on special teams and this defense, right now.”
The switch to defense for Young has almost seemed seamless for him, but he’s had his teammates helping him, two in particular are Tyrone Smith and Casey Hughes.
“T-Boney” as Young calls him, came on the same recruiting trip as Young. They started off playing receiver and now they’ve made that position switch together. They sit by each other in the meeting rooms. T-Boney is always being that helping hand for him. Another “brother” as Young likes to call them is Casey Hughes, whose paths actually crossed before the University of Utah Young beat Hughes in a track meet when they were younger.
“I’m going to miss the family,” said Young. “I’m going to miss everyday waking up—waking up dreading to wake up for those workouts, but when you walk through the doors you see your brothers. Every morning from when I stepped on campus in 2014 to now, waking up and seeing them and going through the grind and I’d do it over and over for them.”
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