JUCO WR Colbie Young commits, to enroll for Summer B: "I'm ready to work"
Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna Junior College Class of 2022 WR Colbie Young chose to visit the University of Miami officially this weekend instead of Tennessee.
And now he's chosen the Canes over everyone else. Young told CaneSport that he committed to Hurricane coaches this morning before leaving campus.
He’s not like most other recruits who want to wait for edits and make their own big announcement. He’s a bit of a throwback.
“Do you want us to wait to write the story of you committing?” Young was asked.
“Nah, I’m not like that,” Young said. “I’m waiting on edits and will send it out myself tomorrow but I’m not into that Hollywood fame. You can just go ahead and write it and let everyone know now. I’m a Miami Hurricane. I committed.
“I never really have been like a highly recruited guy, you know? I’m just ready to come and work. I went to JUCO.”
Young will be back at UM on Wednesday enrolling for Summer B.
“I’m ready to work,” he says. "They need a receiver. Miami coaches feel there’s a part of my game I can develop more but that I can come in right away and dominate.”
Young says coaches made it clear to him he will have to earn anything he gets, and that he’s going to start out as a backup.
“They will use me like a big X receiver, and I know I have to compete, will have Frank (Ladson) in front of me, guys that were there all spring,” Young said. “It’s not a situation where I’ll redshirt, though. I’ll work, can maybe earn the starting spot but have some dogs ahead of me.
“I’m just getting ready for high level football.”
In an ironic twist, Young and Ladson were together at a Clemson camp when they were in high school, and Young remembers watching Ladson and trying to emulate some of his game.
Never did he imagine back then that the former Clemson commit Ladson and he would wind up competing with each other at the University of Miami.
“It’s crazy to think about how it turned out,” Young said.
Young says he anticipates a smooth transition in part because his JUCO offense used a lot of cutups from what Josh Gattis has done in the past.
As for why he committed?
“The visit was just great,” said Young, who was hosted by Dom Mammarelli. “It felt like a family. Coach (Mario) Cristobal is a great guy, made me feel like I was at home. And I have a brother that’s lives in Pembroke Pines.”
His sister was also in the area this weekend, so he got to see her and her children for the first time in five years.
“Now I’m just excited to be a Hurricane,” Young said. “It’s great facilities, a great team. I just want to work.”
Young's other OVs were to Jacksonville State and Arkansas State.
It was a whirlwind Miami recruitment for Young. He says UM first reached out to him earlier this month.
“They thought I was a 2023 recruit, didn’t know I was eligible to leave now,” Young said. “Once they found out they jumped onboard fast (with an offer).”
Young only found out in February that he would be eligible to leave junior college after one year. The first major offer he got was from Virginia Tech, and Penn State and Pittsburgh also was looking at him seriously as well.
A 6-4, 210-pounder, he had 24 catches for 472 yards and nine TDs in nine games last season.
“The athlete that he is, I always say it’s easier to coach him because when the ball gets in his area he really finds a way to come down with it, Lackawanna WR coach Zahneer Shuler says. “He’s got a basketball background that helps, and he can do everything. His best ability is going to get the ball – it can be a slant, a difficult catch, he comes down with it. he also has the ability to stretch the field and take a 60-yard TD."
Young didn’t have any major scholarship offers out of high school, but now finds himself in a situation where a major program like UM were enamored with his height and catch radius ability.
Young will be a true sophomore.
Oh, and a couple of others from Lackawanna that became Canes?
OL Tyler McMeans and Bryant McKinnie.
CaneSport's take
Miami coaches obviously felt the WR room needed a boost of talent and that a guy with Young's ability can come in and be a difference-maker. So look for him to get a role from Day 1 as a Cane. And you just have to love his attitude of just come to work, forget the fame stuff. You just don’t see that much anymore.