Opinion: KU lands a keeper in Young

Was the University of Kansas’ 12-1 football season and 2007 Orange Bowl championship a one-year mirage or the beginning of a new era?

The successful recruitment of Kevin Young should help ensure that it’s the latter. Young, a senior-to-be at Olathe North and rated one of the top five 2009 recruits in the state, made a verbal commitment to KU last week.

Young had offers from more tradition-rich programs like Kansas State and Nebraska, but chose KU.

“That’s where I felt most comfortable, so I went ahead and committed,” Young said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that’s where I want to be at this point.”

At 6-foot-3, 225 pounds with a 4.7-second 40-yard dash time, Young has the rare mix of size and speed necessary to become a frightening defensive lineman in the Big 12 Conference and he seems willing to do the necessary work.

This summer his days have been chock full of weight training, yoga and personal workouts with Billy Long and former Kansas City Chief Will Shields. That’s in addition to summer workouts with the North team. True to his humble nature, Young credits the entire Eagle coaching staff, as well as youth coaches Dave Syvada and Dave Noland, for helping him become a national recruit.

Young said he plans to get a jump-start on his KU career by enrolling next January and practicing with the team in the spring. He’s on track to graduate from North a semester early (which is bad news for basketball coach Jeff Walton, but a great accomplishment for Young) and his 3.2 high school GPA suggests he’ll be able to help KU’s football program gain respect off the field as well. Last year the Jayhawks compiled a less-than-sterling 2.39 team GPA.

Young said he was glad to get the recruiting process out of the way, especially with his senior season at North fast approaching. In the end the final decision was between KU and Nebraska, two schools that impressed him so much that he canceled visits to Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Minnesota, and Arizona State.

Though KU was ranked among the elite teams in the country last year, the entire coaching staff from Mark Mangino on down recruited Young more like a small local school. Defensive line coach Joe Bob Clements and defensive coordinator Clint Bowen were particularly attentive, bombarding him with e-mails and hand-written postcards.

“Having a good relationship with the coaches was one of the biggest factors in my decision,” Young said. “I know how busy those guys are and couldn’t believe they would take time out of their busy day to focus on me.”

Young said the decision to go with KU hit him after church one day and, because the campus is so close, he was able to meet with Mangino and announce his commitment in person.

He’ll have plenty of family cheering him on at KU, much of it from inside the student section. One of his brothers will start classes there in the fall, while another plans to attend KU after he finishes his commitment to the Marine Corps next year. Young’s mom has applied to the KU School of Nursing and is still waiting on an acceptance letter that would top off the family’s Jayhawk connection.

If all goes according to Mangino’s plans, Young will be joining his family members at a Big 12 powerhouse football school in 2009, hopping on the KU wave just as it begins to crest, and helping it stay on top.