Notre Dame running back Kedren Young out for 2025 season with significant fall camp injury

One of the most smack-you-in-the-face obvious storylines during Notre Dame football fall camp, from a positive perspective, has been the depth of the Fighting Irish running back room.

It got a little thinner this week.

Redshirt freshman running back Kedren Young will miss a significant amount of time in his second season in South Bend because of a torn ACL he suffered during Notre Dame’s second week of fall camp.

Irish running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider met with the media last weekend. He said he had not yet come up with in-season roles for the players in his position group, of which there are six on scholarship including Young. Reading between the lines, combining what we knew about the rotation in 2024 and what reporters have seen in spring ball and fall camp in 2025, Young was in a battle with redshirt junior Gi’Bran Payne for the No. 4 slot behind junior Jeremiyah Love, redshirt junior Jadarian Price and sophomore Aneyas Williams.

Young could have given Notre Dame a completely different in-game look than any other running back on the roster. He’s 5-11, 240 pounds. The next heaviest Irish tailback is walk-on Dylan Devezin at 216 pounds. He’s more than just a short-yardage hammer, though.

Seider said Young is legit. He said his “time is now.”

“I want him to always approach the game like he’s going to be a starter because I think that kid has a bright future and it’s sooner rather than later,” Seider said. “I think he had a great spring to the point where he elevated and pushed the room. He’s a kid that’s ready to play, not game one ready to play, but he’s physically capable to play and hold his ground.” 

“I’m going to take any role I can to help my team out,” Young added.

All of that will have to wait now. It’s devastating for the player; ask Payne, who sat out all of 2024 with a knee injury and lost his RB3 role to Williams. Young was hopeful to build on the 21 carries for 116 yards and a touchdown he posted late in the fourth quarters of blowouts last season. Progress is momentarily put on hold now.

For Notre Dame, though, the outlook is similar to what it would have been with Young in the mix — lean on Love and Price, who very well could be the top tailback tandem in America, get Williams on the field on third down and in obvious passing situations and sprinkle in some looks for a fourth player from the unit.

That fourth player could have been Young. It’ll almost assuredly be Payne now, with freshman Nolan James Jr. waiting for his turn in years to come.