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Roundtable Sports
Notre Dame 2026 Player Profile: Running Back Kedren Young
- Story byRoundtable Sports
- Notre Dame 2026 Player Profile: Running Back Kedren Young
(Angela Driskell, Irish Breakdown)
Notre Dame will have a new-look backfield in 2026, and redshirt sophomore Kedren Younghopes to be part of that group. After missing all of 2025 with a knee injury, Young returns and hopes to build on his strong 2025 spring performance. There was talk that Young's performance in the spring and summer had him poised to earn a role in the 2025 backfield, but that opportunity was lost in the first week of fall camp when he went down with an injury. Now, Young will look for a chance to get his career back on track.
Here is our 2026 season preview and profile for Young:
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KEDREN YOUNG PROFILE
Class/Eligibility: Junior / Sophomore
Height/Weight: 5-11, 234
Hometown/High School: Lufkin, Texas/Lufkin
CAREER STATS
2024: 21 carries, 116 yards, 5.5 YPC, 1 TD
FALL CAMP PREVIEW
Young went down with a knee injury in the first week of fall camp last season, so priority number one this fall is getting back to full speed and staying healthy. He should be good to go for fall camp, so step two will be shaking off the rust. Young didn't play much as a freshman, and he missed all of last season, so how sharp will he be early on? That's a major question he'll have to answer in the fall, and he'll need to show his quickness, explosiveness and strength are back to full strength. If he checks all those boxes, Young will have a chance to make a major push for playing time in fall camp.
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2026 EXPECTATIONS
There's a wide range of expectations for Young this season. At the very bottom of those is that he uses his combination of size, power, athletic skill and the feel for the position we saw in high school to emerge as a part of the rotation. Is that as the No. 2 back? We'll see, but at the very least the hope is that Young can emerge as a factor in the short-yardage/goal line packages. As a high school player and as a freshman at Notre Dame, Young showed off impressive downhill power, pad level and the ability to finish off runs. Those traits should allow a healthy Young to thrive in that role.
At the higher end of the expectations in 2026 is that Young quickly gets back to full speed. In this scenario, his full game comes back. The power, the nimble athletic skill, the top notch decision making, the second level vision and the ability to be a lead back all come back. Young graded out as a Top 100 player coming out of high school, and if he plays to his full potential he can not only be a situational player, he can become a legit 1A/1B player with Williams. Yes, he's big and powerful, but his ability to cut and make defenders miss at his size is what made him so dynamic as a high school player.
Can Young get back to being that player? None of us know, which is part of the risk after a player has a major knee injury. Will he be able to get his quickness and explosiveness back? Will he shake off the rust after missing a year? We don't know the answer to any of those questions yet, but if the answer is positive Young will quickly become an impact runner for the Irish.
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A GOOD SEASON FOR YOUNG WOULD BE ....
One in which he gets back to full health, gets his explosiveness back, shakes off the rust and becomes a difference maker in the run game. Remember, Audric Estimecarried the ball just seven times as a freshman in 2021 before breaking out with a 920-yard, 11-touchdown performance in 2022. Kyren Williamshad just four carries as a freshman in 2019, but he followed up with an 1,125-yard, 13-touchdown performance the next season. Young missed a season in between in between, which creates some question marks about where his game is, but his game is good enough to have a similar breakout season.
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