CB Avery Young could be in for a career year as a junior

Avery Young has played in all 24 games so far in his young career at cornerback for the Rutgers football team. Of those 24 games, he’s earned 21 starts, 11 as a freshman taking over for an injured Blessuan Austin, who is now with the New York Jets, and 10 a year ago.

From the eye, Young showed promise in 2018 with a ProFootballFocus grade on defense of a solid 72.0, but regressed some last season with a 66.0 as his coverage, pass rush, run defense, and tackling scores took slight hits.

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After leading the secondary with 66 tackles two years ago (35 against the run, 30 on pass plays, and one on special teams), he made 37 a year ago, though he did record his first career interception against Massachusetts in the opener.

Heading into his junior season, the 6-foot-0, 194-pounder from Coatesville, Pa. could see an uptick in production thanks to stronger coaching from head coach Greg Schiano and assistant coach Fran Brown. Furthermore, Brown recently stated that strength and conditioning coach Jay Butler can have a huge positive effect on Young as well.

“(He just has to) keep working. I think that he'll truly benefit from Jay Butler,” Brown said. “As you get older you start getting stronger and have different things that go, but I think with the strength coach we have you, he'll put that muscle and bulk on him and learn how to develop his speed. He started since he was a true freshman.”

Young is confident, has experience, and has shown qualities in being a leader on and off the field, such as being the first one publicly sending a message to his hometown about staying safe during this hard time with the spread of the coronavirus.

“He's a smart kid and he loves football and is passionate about it,” Brown said. “The thing I like about Avery is that he's a leader and I want to show him how to lead on the field and be more vocal. I'm excited about him.”

When training camp and the season comes along, Young will be at the forefront as a possible starter again at cornerback to limit big plays and create turnovers.

“To me it comes down to a core philosophy,” defensive coordinator Robb Smith said a few months ago. “We want to put pressure on the quarterback and put pressure on the play caller in order to be successful. We got to be able to stop the run. It was alluded to earlier and we got to be able to eliminate the big plays, and then really probably the biggest thing is we got to find ways to create takeaways and get the ball back to our offence. How those goals fit into our scheme, we're really kind of figuring that out in terms of where we can put our players in the best position to be successful.”

Having Brown in his corner will certainly help. Brown, as Temple’s co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach, guided the Owls with a unit that finished ranked fourth nationally in red zone defense, 10th in sacks, 11th in defensive touchdowns, 12th for tackles-for-loss, and 13th in fumbles recovered.

He also spent 2017 and 2018 at Baylor as assistant head coach and defensive backs coach.

In 2015, also at Temple, he helped cornerback Sean Chandler to a second-team All-American Athletic Conference pick as he grabbed four interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns. In 2014, Travon Young also earned All-AAC honors with four picks. Brown turned around Temple’s defense in that 2014 season as the passing defense allowed 186.9 yards per game after giving up 298.6 in 2013. The Owls also conceded just nine passing touchdowns compared to 24 the year prior.

Rivals also named Brown one of the top recruiters in the AAC in 2014, and there’s no question why.

“Once (Schiano) got the job, I was just itching for that call and it all worked itself out,” Brown said last week. “...I want to win a national title at Rutgers.”