Vincent Paul Young Jr. (born May 18, 1983) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Young was selected by the Tennessee Titans as the third overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft, and he was also selected to be the Madden NFL 08 cover athlete.
Young played college football for the Texas Longhorns, and is often mentioned among the greatest quarterbacks in NCAA history.[1] As a junior, he received the Davey O'Brien Award, given annually to the best college quarterback in the nation. He finished second behind Reggie Bush in Heisman Trophy voting. After the Heisman voting, Young led his team to a BCS National Championship against Bush's defending BCS national champion USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl, a game lauded as one of the most-anticipated and greatest in the history of college football.[2] Texas retired Young's jersey on August 30, 2008.[3]
He spent the first five seasons of his career with the Titans where he compiled a 30–17 starting record. In his rookie season, Young was named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was named to the AFC Pro Bowl team as a reserve.[4] In 2009, Young earned his second Pro Bowl selection and was named Sporting News NFL Comeback Player of the Year. He later played one year as a backup with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011 and had offseason stints with the Buffalo Bills, the Green Bay Packers, and Cleveland Browns from 2012 to 2014. In 2017, he attempted a comeback in the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but was released before the season began.[5]
Young grew up in the 4th Ward and Hiram Clarke neighborhoods of Houston, Texas, where he was primarily raised by his mother and his grandmother. His father, Vincent Young Sr., missed much of Vince's college career due to a 2003 burglary conviction and prison sentence.[6][7] Young credits his mother and grandmother for keeping him away from the street gangs. At the age of seven, Young was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle at the corner of Tidewater and Buxley, streets in his Houston neighborhood. The accident nearly killed him, leaving him hospitalized for months after the bicycle's handle bar went into his stomach. Today, he credits this event for making him into a "tougher" individual. Young wore the #10 to show love and respect for his mother, Felicia Young, whose birthday is June 10.[8] Young attended Dick Dowling Middle School in Hiram Clarke.[9] Some of Young's friends were a part of the "Hiram Clarke Boys", a local street gang; many of those friends died as a result of their activities. Young's mother confronted him after he had been involved in a fight between gangs, and told him that he needed to change his behavior.[10]
You can't turn on a television in Houston without seeing Vince Young. You might see him more than the Texans. He was like LeBron James in Houston when he was coming out of high school.
— Rodrique Wright, Alief Hastings High School, and later Texas defensive tackle.[11]
Young was coached by Ray Seals at Madison High School in Houston, where he started at quarterback for three years and compiled 12,987 yards of total offense during his high school career.[12] During his senior season, he led his Madison Marlins to a 61–58 victory in the 5A Regionals over the previously undefeated Galena Park North Shore Mustangs, accounting for more than 400 yards of total offense, while passing for three touchdowns and rushing for two more before a crowd of 45,000 in the Houston Astrodome.[11] After beating Missouri City Hightower 56–22 in the state quarterfinals, Houston Madison faced Austin Westlake in the state semifinals. Although Young completed 18 of 30 passes for 400 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 92 yards (on 18 carries) and a touchdown, Houston Madison lost by a score of 48–42.[13]
Among the honors Young received in high school were:
Young was also a varsity athlete in numerous other sports. In basketball, he played as a guard/forward and averaged more than 25 points per game over his career. This allowed him to be a four-year letterman and two-time all-district performer. In track and field, he was a three-year letterman and member of two district-champion 400-meter relay squads. In baseball, he played for two seasons, spending time as both an outfielder and pitcher. He also made the all-state team in football and in track.[14]
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Young enrolled at the University of Texas, where he played for coach Mack Brown's Texas Longhorns football team from 2002 to 2005.[15] He was part of an exceptionally strong Texas recruiting class that included future NFL players Rodrique Wright, Justin Blalock, Brian Robison, Kasey Studdard, Lyle Sendlein, David Thomas, Selvin Young, and Aaron Ross.[16][17] Young redshirted his freshman year.[18]
As a redshirt freshman during the 2003 season, Young was initially second on the depth chart behind Chance Mock. However, Mock was benched halfway through the season (in the game against Oklahoma) in favor of Young.[19] After that game, Young and Mock alternated playing time.[20] Young appeared in 12 games and passed for 1,155 yards, six passing touchdowns, and seven interceptions to go along with 135 carries for 998 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.[21]
As a redshirt sophomore in the 2004 season, Young started every game and led the Longhorns to an 11–1 season record (losing to rival Oklahoma in a shutout), a top-five final ranking, and the school's first-ever appearance in the Rose Bowl, in which they defeated the University of Michigan.[22][23] He began to earn his reputation as a dual-threat quarterback by passing for 1,849 yards and rushing for 1,189 yards.[24] The Texas coaches helped facilitate this performance by changing the team offensive scheme from the more traditional I-formation to a shotgun formation with three wide receivers. This change gave the offense more options in terms of play selection, and consequently made defending against it more difficult.
Before his junior season, Young appeared on the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football alongside Texas A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal.[25]
As a redshirt junior in the 2005 season, Young led the Longhorns to an 11–0 regular-season record.[26] The Longhorns held a number-two ranking in the preseason, and held that ranking through the season except for one week when they were ranked number one in the Bowl Championship Series.[27] Texas won the Big 12 championship game 70–3 over Colorado and still held their number-two BCS ranking, which earned them a berth in the National Championship Rose Bowl game against the USC Trojans.[28] Before the game, the USC Trojans were being discussed on ESPN and other media outlets as possibly the greatest college football team of all time. Riding a 34-game winning streak, including the previous National Championship, USC featured two Heisman Trophy winners in the backfield – quarterback Matt Leinart (2004 Heisman winner) and running back Reggie Bush (2005 Heisman winner—since vacated).[29]
In the 2006 Rose Bowl, Young accounted for 467 yards of total offense (200 rushing, 267 passing) and three rushing touchdowns (including a 9-yard touchdown scramble on fourth down with 19 seconds left) to lead the Longhorns to a 41–38 victory.[30] This performance led to him winning Rose Bowl Most Valuable Player honors. Young finished the season with 3,036 yards passing and 1,050 yards rushing earning him the Davey O'Brien Award.[31] He was also named the Longhorns MVP.[32] He was named an All-American.[33] In recognition of his Rose Bowl accomplishments, Young was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 2018.[34]
Early in his college career, Young had been criticized as "great rusher...average passer", and his unconventional throwing motion had been criticized as being "side-arm"[35] as opposed to the conventional "over-the-top" throwing motion typically used by college quarterbacks.
Young reached a win–loss record as a starter of 30–2, ranking him number one of all University of Texas quarterbacks by number of wins, although his successor, Colt McCoy, far surpassed him with 45.[36][37] His .938 winning percentage as a starting quarterback ranks sixth-best in Division I history. Young's career passing completion percentage is the best in Texas history, 60.8%. During his career at Texas (2003–05), Young passed for 6,040 yards (number five in Texas history) and 44 touchdowns (number four in Texas history) while rushing for 3,127 yards (first on Texas's all-time QB rushing list and number seven on Texas's all-time list) and 37 touchdowns (number five on Texas's all-time rushing touchdowns list and tied for first among quarterbacks).[38] He was also number 10 on ESPN/IBM's list of the greatest college football players ever. In 2007, ESPN compiled a list of the top-100 plays in college football history; Young's game-winning touchdown in the 2006 Rose Bowl ranked fifth.[39]
The University of Texas retired Young's number 10 jersey during the 2008 season-opening football game on August 30, 2008.[3][40]