Thamel, checking in once again with a weekly update from the guest bedroom at Urban's house...
https://sports.yahoo.com/chase-young-best-player-in-college-football-154802867.html
Why freaky OSU DE Chase Young is the best player in college football: ‘There’s only 10 guys like him in the world’
Pete Thamel
Yahoo Sports
Oct 23, 2019, 11:48 AM
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The first overmatched victim of Ohio State defensive end Chase Young flashes on a projector screen in the Buckeyes football facility. Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley hits pause to single out an offensive tackle from Florida Atlantic, frozen in game-film infamy amid an autopsy of Young’s sacks.
Hafley see-saws the film until it stops in the precise place that shows Young vaulting a half-step toward the quarterback an instant after the snap. There’s a tone of pity in Hafley’s voice, as the Florida Atlantic linemen are still lined up perfectly still like a row of folding chairs.
A half-step advantage for a defensive lineman is like a 10-yard cushion for a wide receiver, and Young appears poised to bull-rush past the line with the ease of fans flowing through a turnstile.
“Not one of the offensive linemen is moving,” Hafley said, shaking his head. “It’s. Over. Doesn’t it look like he’s running out of the blocks in a track meet?”
When the film resumes, Young proceeds to barrel around the edge virtually unimpeded for one of his 9.5 sacks, a total that’s tied for No. 1 in college football. The frozen moments of singular dominance have come in
flourishes through seven games, as the image of Young’s blond dreadlocks splayed out behind him as he mauls helpless quarterbacks has seemingly played on a loop this season.
Young is a 6-foot-6, 270-pound freak who appears to be darting toward greatness like, well, a sprinter coming out of the blocks. Former Buckeye Nick Bosa compares Young’s skill set to elite NFL rush ends Khalil Mack and Von Miller, two generational pass-rush talents. “That type of get-off,” Bosa told Yahoo Sports recently. “He has that speed first, power second.”
Young’s potential invokes the hyperbole of an athlete that can change the paradigm of the position. Along with consistently mangling quarterbacks, he can also fluidly drop back into coverage, block kicks and has an imposing physique that one NFL scout likens to LeBron James.
The natural comparison for Young in Columbus remains the Bosa brothers, former Buckeyes who went No. 2 in the 2019 draft (Nick) and No. 3 overall in 2016 (Joey). Both Bosas have performed at a level that justify those lofty picks, but former OSU coach Urban Meyer says that Young “may be the most talented” of the three.
“The guy looks like the Predator,” said FAU coach Lane Kiffin, mimicking Young’s popular nickname. “There’s only 10 guys like him in the world.”
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