After losing two first-round stars, the Irish backfield needs a physical spark. A healthy Kedren Young offers a unique, bruising skill set to unlock this unproven rushing attack.
Notre Dame's running back room is in an interesting spot heading into the 2026 season. The last two years, their rushing attack has been fueled by the Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price two-headed monster. In their final season together, Love rushed for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns and Price rushed for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns. Love won the Doak Walker Award and both players went on to be first round picks in this year's NFL Draft.
The room they left behind is extremely talented, but outside of rising junior Aneyas Williams, the group is relatively unproven. This spring, we saw a heavy dosage of Nolan James Jr. and true freshman Jonaz Walton due to several injuries across the board. This room is talented enough to maintain the high levels of production it's seen over the last several seasons and we've seen other programs in recent history have very successful rushing attacks after losing a key star, or stars.
In order for Notre Dame's running back room to reach it's full potential, Kedren Young will have to get back healthy and remain healthy. He's the wildcard on the Fighting Irish offense this season. The 5-11, 234-pound Texas native has a different build and different skillset unlike any other back on the roster, and they'll need him this season.
Last year, it was looking like Young was going to play a crucial role in the offense. He was rising rapidly up the depth chart are a redshirt freshman and had a monster spring. In last year's Blue-Gold game, we watched Young rip off a couple of solid runs and catch a huge wheel route which went for a big gain against fellow freshman linebacker Madden Faraimo. Unfortunately, his offseason momentum was stalled due to a knee injury he sustained in fall camp.
Young was sidelined for all of the 2025-2026 season. At the time, it was thought that he would be the 'short-yardage' back within the offense to take some of the workload off of Love and Price. But we would have to wait another year to see that take shape. Ideally, we'll get to see Young in fall camp, but I'm still not sure what kind of workload he'll receive in fall camp because that will be his first time back in a calendar year.
Outside of Williams, Young is one of the only running backs returning that has produced at the collegiate level. On his career, the 5-11, 234-pound rusher has 21 carries for 116 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 5.5 yards per carry during his true freshman season across three games. Young carried the ball 10 times for 52 yards and a touchdown against Navy in 2024 which was the final game he played in.
When he's fully healthy, Young is the most talented ball carrier they have on the roster. Even though he's the biggest guy in the room, he might have the best feet between the tackles, and last spring we saw his impact in the pass game as a run blocker and as a pass catcher. If he's able to return fully healthy, his skillset will be utilized this season, I'm confident in that. The question is around his health and how ready he'll be come week one of the regular season.
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