Sam Young on Outland Watch List

Notre Dame, IN (UHND) – Senior offensive tackle Sam Young was named to the Outland Award Watch List on Monday. Young, a former five star recruit, will be entering his fourth season as a starting tackle for the Fighting Irish.

Young has started every game of his Notre Dame career – the first offensive lineman in school history to do so.  His career, however,  has not quite lived up to the hype up to this point.  After starting as a true freshman in 2006, big things were expected of him each of the past two seasons.  Up to this point though, Young has not become the dominant tackle that most felt he was destined to become when he was recruited by every school under the sun coming out of Saint Thomas Aquinas HS.

This past spring Young praised new offensive line coach Frank Verducci for working with him on his fundamentals and technique.  During the spring, Young was also receiving a lot of attention from potential agents looking to get an in with the senior tackle.  He has also been projected as a potential first round pick in next April’s NFL Draft depending on what he does during the 2009 season.  Hopefully all of this means that Notre Dame fans will see some big things out of Young this fall.

The last Notre Dame offensive lineman to be named to the Outland Watch list was John Sullivan in 2007.  A Notre Dame lineman hasn’t won the award since 1976 when Ross Browner took home the honors.  The last Golden Domer to be a finalist for the award was Aaron Taylor in 1993.

Just three opposing players are on the list – USC’s Jeff Byers and Kristofer O’Dowd and Boston College’s Matt Tennant.

2009 Outland Watch List

• Jon Asamoah, Illinois
• Geno Atkins, Georgia
• Zane Beadles, Utah
• Ciron Black, LSU
• Bryan Bulaga, Iowa
• Jeff Byers, USC
• Brandon Carter, Texas Tech
• Nick Charles, Air Force
• Terrence Cody, Alabama
• Anthony Davis, Rutgers
• Chris Fisher, Louisiana-Lafayette
• Kurtis Gregory, Missouri
• Chris Hall, Texas
• Mike Iupati, Idaho
• John Jerry, Ole Miss
• Mike Johnson, Alabama
• Arthur Jones, Syracuse
• Gerald McCoy, Oklahoma
• Josh McNeil, Tennessee
• Andre Neblett, Temple
• Kristofer O’Dowd, USC
• Jared Odrick, Penn State
• Vince Oghobaase, Duke
• Russell Okung, Oklahoma State
• Jeff Owens, Georgia
• Mike Pouncey, Florida
• Maurkice Pouncey, Florida
• Brian Price, UCLA
• Sergio Render, Virginia Tech
• Boo Robinson, Wake Forest
• Malcolm Sheppard, Arkansas
• D’Anthony Smith, Louisiana Tech
• Ndamukong Suh, Nebraska
• Matt Tennant, Boston College
• Torrell Troup, Central Florida
• Adam Ulatoski, Texas
• J.D. Walton, Baylor
• Trent Williams, Oklahoma
• Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State
• Sam Young, Notre Dame