Sylvain Yondjouen has constantly been learning since he came to Georgia Tech after signing in the 2019 class out of Belgium as a bit of a project for the Jackets’ staff. The big defensive lineman has shown that he is physically gifted since arriving on The Flats and has come a long way in his knowledge and improvement in the game of football after starting the sport later than most at the age of 16.

One of the only things that has held Yondjouen back from being a consistently disruptive force for Georgia Tech has been injuries. After playing in 11 games as a true freshman in 2019, he only played in three as a sophomore in 2020 before an injury ended his season.

Then after playing in all 12 games both in 2021 and 2022 and putting up strong numbers, including 32 tackles, 2.5 sacks and five tackles-for-loss in 2022, once again his college career hit a big speed bump with a season-ending injury in the season opener vs. Louisville in 2023.

But now as a redshirt-senior, Yondjouen is back healthy going into the 2024 campaign and ready to fully show how much he has learned and become a more seasoned student of the game.

"I think you can see a big difference when you watch my first game in 2019 and then the games later, how I look lost at first,” said Yondjouen, who is on the preseason watchlist for national comeback player of the year. “And also a lot of the terms, a lot of the words they use in football, I didn't really now, and now it all makes sense. Like I see stuff and I can even call it myself. So that's a confidence boost to yourself and that makes you more trusted on the field. You can play with less thinking too much. It's really going fast. At first the game was going very fast, but now it's going slow so I can see what's going and understand what we're trying to do. I just try to do my job even though if I mess up, I know I've still got to be there because somebody is coming behind me. That I learned because they taught me the right way so I think that really helps. Having that extra year too just for the future, making sure that I know what I need to know for that next level."

While the injury that cost him all but a few plays last season wasn’t exactly the plan he had in mind, Yondjouen said it allowed him to sit back and learn even more about football as a whole as well as what the Georgia Tech coaching staff wants to do from a scheme standpoint. He recently finished rehab from his injury just in time to start fall camp close to 100 percent.

"I think personally I did the work. I know what the injury was. It's my second time seeing how the rehab process works so when I found out I had to get surgery again, I knew what I was going to do, put my everything I could into rehab,” said Yondjouen. “I finished end of July. We were very confident with the trainers on how I was moving during my rehab. And then camp started, and I was out there since Practice 1 and haven't had any trouble since. So I'm confident in what I can do. I've shown my teammates and my coaches that I can be out there. So pretty confident. (With conditioning) I did some running during my rehab so I was still working out with them, running with them. When they were doing cutting left and right, maybe I wasn't doing that. But the conditioning part I've been doing with the team since the start of conditioning so it's been fine from then."

Yondjouen’s new position coach, Kyle Pope, who is in his first year with the Georgia Tech program, leading the defensive ends and outside linebackers, said it’s not hard to see what kind of player Yondjouen can be during practice and that he’s healthy and ready to go for 2024.

"When you turn the film on you can't help but see him," Pope said of Yondjouen's performance in camp. "He is a guy that is flying around and he is a guy coming back from an injury so you want to see how he comes back and he is better than when it happened. Those are the things you love to see. It is going to be a continual process as we prepare for the season to get him ready to go, but right now he is working hard and taking it a day at a time and a rep at a time. He is doing what he is coached to do and I'm very excited about that guy."

With Yondjouen being a part of the program since 2019, he’s seen his share of turnover with the coaching staff, especially at his position where he’s had multiple different guys leading the way. But while many would look at that as a negative, he has seen it as a positive, getting the chance to learn from different coaches and take in a little bit of all the different approaches to the game.

"Yeah, I've had a few different coaches. I think being able to have that diversity of coaches helps a lot. Having different mindsets of the coaches you have really affected me because I'm really a good coachable player I think,” said Yondjouen. “So when they came in with their ideas and how they wanted to play the game, I mean I just tried to dive into it and trusted them. That's their job, and I'm going to do what I need to do for them. So I just trusted them, we played it and I think we can see that everybody is liking it. We understand it too.”

Another aspect of Yondjouen’s development has been the improved play of Georgia Tech’s offensive line. He said the battles in the trenches during practice have only helped make both units, the offensive and defensive line, better.

"D-line against O-line is been up and down. Sometimes offense wins. Sometimes defense has a day. But I think we're just all trying to get better. That's why everybody is giving 100 percent,” said Yondjouen. “I think that whenever I'm against Jordan (Williams) a lot, when I have a good play on him or he has a good play on me, we dap each other up. We get back up and we go back again the next play. I think it's a good environment right now where everybody knows what we're trying to do. Everybody's on the same mindset. I'm very confident on what they (OL) are going to do, and I'm very confident in what we're (DL) going to do this season."

With the season less than two weeks away as the Jackets get ready to take on Florida State in the opener on Aug. 24 in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland at noon, Yondjouen said he is excited about the opportunity to play a game back in Europe. He said that one big plus is that his grandmother on his mom’s side of the family will be in attendance to see him play a football game for the first time.

He said he’s also expecting some questions from his teammates about the whole trip as they are probably a little less-traveled and not as well-versed in what they will experience in Europe.

"I haven't had anybody ask too much about it, but I think when we're getting close to it like a week before, it's going to be like 'how do you stay there for eight hours on the plane' or 'how is that going to happen,’” said Yondjouen with a smile. “Or ‘what did you eat over there?' Or "am I going to have my grits?' I don't know. So those are questions that might come up, but I don't know yet. I'm happy to answer everything they have. I think it's going to be a good time even though we've got to stay focused on why we're going over there. But it's good for them to see Europe for some guys that haven't left America at all. I think it's a big chance for them to really understand how the world works and how things go in different countries."