Tiger Tracks talks to Kyle Young
Posted 01:45 p.m., May 9, 2008
Kyle Young was born and raised in Clemson, grew up cheering for Clemson, played for Clemson. And now he's working for Clemson as an assistant athletic director.
Young is a Clemson man, more than many and maybe even more than any.
So there couldn't be a better person to kick off the weekly Tiger Tracks Q&A segment.
Here are excerpts from the chat we had with him earlier today:
-- I’m not sure a lot of people out there know exactly what you do. Can you give a brief synopsis?
“I’m one of three sports supervisors. I supervise four sports: baseball, golf and men’s and women’s soccer. I provide administrator oversight for day-to-day operations as well as general operation of the program. Supervising head coaches, assisting them, and kind of weaving through the bureaucratic challenges they have as well as any kind of serious issues that might arise.”
-- Your predecessor, Dwight Rainey, was here for a long time before retiring. Got him on speed dial?
“I do have him on speed dial. I’ve probably not called him as often as I did originally when I first started about a year ago. But I call him at least once a month. Anytime a serious issue arises, I always call Dwight. Because when you think about it, a man that worked in the athletic department for over 30 years and in this position for about 25 of those years, he probably has some experience built up. Some institutional knowledge, if you will, that I’d like to tap into anytime an issue arises.”
-- The recent addition of women’s soccer coach Hershey Strosberg was your first major hire. What was that process like?
“It was a good process. We had several very qualified candidates for the job. I learned a lot about the soccer-coaching industry, if you will. I learned a lot more about the sport of soccer in the process as well. (Men’s soccer coach) Trevor Adair was a huge benefit to me as we went through that process of helping me to determine who the qualified candidates were. Actually, former coach Todd Bramble was instrumental as well. Just learning about the sport itself as well as the various steps that you have to go through to hire someone within the state system.”
-- Is it intimidating overseeing sports you might not have comprehensive knowledge of?
“I don’t know if it’s really intimidating. More challenging, and also fun. I’d have to say that soccer now is one of my most favorite sports to watch. I’ve learned a lot over the past few years just watching the game. The skill level of the athletes in that game is pretty impressive. I probably know less about golf than I do about soccer, and I play golf. I try to hit it and find it. That’s the way I’ve always played the game.”
-- Don’t you also work in football scheduling?
“I do. There are a few other responsibilities that I didn’t detail earlier in the job description. I also oversee the summer camps and clinics program, and university housing.”
-- Is football scheduling a lot more complicated than it sounds?
“It is more complicated, or complex. There’s a very minimal amount of games we have to work with on the schedule; there’s only three games that I really have to work on every year. Dwight has taken care of most of those for the most part. But just because you have them scheduled doesn’t mean they’re going to be played. We found that out for the year coming up when we had two of those dropped.”
-- Compare the talent level at Clemson now to when you were playing in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“I would say that when I was playing, you probably had 60 to 70 percent of the team you could count on to get out there and get on the field and compete. Now I think we’re at the level where you’re about at 100 percent of the guys on the field or that we have recruited in the past few years will do the right things in the classroom, weight room, do the right things in practice so they can compete on Saturday.
“Obviously the talent level has probably taken a step up. But it’s hard to say when you play with guys like Woody Dantzler. I think Woody would compare favorably to the two running backs that are on the team now. I don’t know if there is a guy that’s as talented as Woody Dantzler. Some of the moves he made were as breathtaking as the moves you see C.J. Spiller making, and Woody was making them from the quarterback position. And he’s also a kid that would run over you if he had to, like James Davis can do from time to time. I don’t know if there’s been a Keith Adams come through here since then or before then. Sometimes when you look at recruiting classes, you don’t really know. I think potentially, the guys we have now will be 100 times better than we ever were. But I think potential, as one of my old coaches used to say, is a cuss word because it’s not anything you’ve done. You’ve got to do it.
“But sometimes in the past we were forced to recruit some kids that thought they’d already arrived. But when you get your program to a certain level, you can start recruiting at a different level and bring in kids that you know are going to compete. You don’t have fallback guys. We don’t have fallback guys in our classes anymore. We’ve got guys we know are going to be a good fit for our program regardless. That change is 100 percent a function of recruiting and the way coach (Tommy) Bowden runs the program.”
-- What’s the biggest change in college football that’s occurred since you were playing it?
“Maybe it’s just because all I pay much attention to is Clemson. But I think you’re seeing a shift away from the spread offense from the standpoint of it being a pass-oriented offense. I think what you’re seeing is probably more of a shift back to a running-oriented style of ball on the offensive side. I know you’re seeing it here at Clemson, where you’re kind of getting back toward that ball-control type of mentality you see in the NFL.”
-- Who are the people you remain closest to from your football days at Clemson?
“I stay in touch with Will Merritt and Brandon Streeter more than most. I see a bunch of those fellas when they come back in town for games. I worked with Streeter on the football staff when we were both graduate assistants. And obviously Will is from here so we’re only about 20 minutes away. So we see each other a good bit. Not as much as we’d like, but that’s the way life goes.”
-- What’s it like working for the athletic department you grew up following and played for?
“It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since high school, I knew I wanted to be in athletic administration. What better place to do that than at your alma mater and the school you grew up cheering for? It’s definitely a dream come true. Hopefully I represent guys I played with in this role, the student-athletes that came before me and all the coaches that have put in the sweat, blood and tears over the 100-plus years we’ve been sponsoring sports here at Clemson.”
-- Tell us something about Terry Don Phillips that isn’t well known.
“He’s probably the most educated man I know. I know he enjoys horseback riding. I think he’s been out there riding with Danny Ford out on his farm in Pendleton. I’ve never been out there and have never seen it, but maybe you can ask him about that one day.
“Something that folks maybe can see but aren’t completely aware of is the impact he has had on honoring the traditions and the history of our athletic programs at Clemson. Before he got here, I’d say that obviously as Clemson people we knew what we had accomplished in various sports, and we knew who some of our legends were. But I’m not sure we did a very good job of letting others know and letting them see those accomplishments and the value those people have added to our athletic program. I’d credit Terry Don with the increased emphasis on our alma mater. I think that’s a reflection of Terry Don Phillips, and that’s something he can hang his hat on here at Clemson.
“He’s got a brother that won the Outland Trophy. That might not be common knowledge. He played alongside his brother at Arkansas on the defensive line.”
-- What’s the biggest challenge facing athletic departments in the future?
“The economy is obviously one right now. With the rising fuel costs, there’s a little bit of concern there. Will athletics become even more regionalized than they are now? You already see a trend where athletics travel outside of a given region is very limited. Will it become almost completely limited to a certain region? Obviously these mega-conferences we’re in now kind of limit that somewhat because we’re forced to go to the Northeast, we’re forced to go all the way down to southern Florida and things of that nature. All that has a trickle-down effect as far as fuel costs and the economy is concerned.
“I’d also say one of the biggest challenges is maintaining the quote-unquote level playing fields among the schools, and I think that’s been a challenge throughout the history of the NCAA. We’ve always tried to maintain what we consider a level playing field, but it’s impossible to do when institutions competing against each other are so different.”
-- I guess you could see that with the recent unveiling of the Academic Progress Rate
“You can see it with the APR, with financial-aid limitations -- all these areas where you can see inequalities that are developed just because we’ve created new rules. There are just too many apples and oranges and other fruits within Division I athletics to think that one rule will apply to all schools. But there’s no doubt you have to have rules, and the challenge is to develop the fairest rules possible. For folks like me, it’s to continually assess those rules and to determine whether or not they are fair.”
-- Where will Kyle Young be in 10 years, and what will he be doing?
“That’s a great question. I ask myself the same thing. I actually asked myself that when I just refinanced my mortgage. I don’t really have plans to leave Clemson. I’d like to stay here for the long haul. But you never know what opportunities will arise. But if opportunities arise and I have a chance to further my career in athletics, then I’d probably jump on it. I don’t know where that would be. I doubt it would be out of the Southeast. So 10 years from now, I don’t see myself outside the Southeast. I see myself working in a position similar to what I am now -- trying to help an athletic program be successful and win games.”
Tiger Tracks thanks Kyle for taking time to share his insight.
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