How Tennessee's Byron Young turned jobs at Dollar General and Burger King into NFL dream
MIAMI – If you’ve heard that Tennessee edge rusher Byron Young went from being a Dollar General assistant manager to an NFL prospect, you’ve only read part of his resume.
Young also worked at Burger King and a Circle K convenience store while searching for an improbable path to become an SEC star and soon-to-be NFL player.
Those long shifts of flipping burgers and stocking shelves are on his mind as No. 6 Tennessee (10-2) prepares to play No. 7 Clemson (11-2) in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
It will be Young’s final college game because he’s declared for the NFL Draft.
“Sometimes I think about (those jobs) and tell myself that I’m not supposed to be here,” Young said. “It’s crazy how I got here. So I’m really proud of myself and everything I accomplished.”
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It’s widely publicized that Young was an assistant manager at Dollar General while looking for an opportunity to play college football. It’s mentioned routinely by TV broadcasters whenever be makes an eye-popping play for the Vols.
He was hesitant to tell his story early in his Tennessee career. But he’s embraced it heading into the Orange Bowl, college all-star games and, presumably, the NFL Scouting Combine, where national media will take a keen interest in his unique background.
“I honestly love telling the story now,” said Young, sitting on a dais and surrounded by reporters at the Le Meridien Dania Beach hotel on Tuesday.
“Talking about it out loud in a setting like this makes me think about it. I love expressing how I came here.”
‘I was a great employee’
Young played at Carvers Bay High in Hemingway, South Carolina, where he didn’t generate much buzz in recruiting.
His dream of playing college football seemed unlikely.
In 2017, Young played at Gulf Coast Prep Sports Academy in Alabama, which appeared to crack the door open for him. But then the school folded in 2018.
While looking for another path to the football field, he moved to Georgia and started working part-time at Burger King. His boss there convinced him to take a second job at Dollar General, where perhaps he could make a career as a store manager.
After all, football seemed far off. And he needed a plan B.
“I was a great employee, and I worked two jobs at one time,” Young said. “But (playing football) was always on my mind. I just didn’t know where to start, and I thought it was impossible.
“What gave me motivation is that I wanted to prove myself wrong.”
Hoping for a scholarship, working at a gas station
Young had a tremendous work ethic. He labored long hours behind the counter at Burger King, mopped the floors and worked the grill.
At Dollar General, he opened and closed the store, stocked shelves and worked the cash register. His humility was an asset in customer service, and he appeared to have a future in store management.
Then he saw a flyer about a football tryout at Georgia Military College. He made the team, played well in the 2019 season and looked forward to catching Division I recruiters’ attention as a sophomore.
Then COVID-19 canceled his 2020 season and appeared to close the door on college football once again.
But Young had come too far to give up. He made a highlight tape of his best plays from Georgia Military intrasquad scrimmages, sent them to FCS and FBS schools and hoped for any reply.
‘I was back at square one’
Meanwhile, Young still needed a practical plan to pay the bills. So he worked at a Circle K convenience store in Milledgeville, Georgia.
After football practice, Young worked the night shift. Sometimes it turned into a double shift that kept him at the store overnight. He got a few hours of sleep in the morning, took online classes, went to practice and returned to work.
There wasn’t much room for hope in his football future aside from his mother’s optimism.
“I felt like I was back at square one,” Young said. “I honestly didn’t know what to do. I thought it was over for me. But my momma told me to keep doing what I was doing, and somebody would be watching.”
Young’s highlight film reached recruiters eager to find talent during the pandemic.
South Alabama, a Sun Belt Conference member, was the first FBS school to offer him a scholarship. Then Old Dominion and Tennessee did the same. Other SEC schools followed soon after.
“From there, things kept getting better,” Young said.
Why Young didn’t opt out of Orange Bowl
Young enrolled at Tennessee on Jan. 21, 2021, just three days after coach Jeremy Pruitt was fired for cause amid allegations of NCAA recruiting violations. Young has never been implicated in the case.
Young impressed his new coaches under Josh Heupel. They thought his skills were raw, but they loved his desire to play. He gained 30 pounds in the weight room in his first semester.
Hanging on to his football dream while working those jobs undoubtedly fueled that intensity.
Young said very little but listened to every nuance the coaches tried to teach him. They found him to be something akin to a “great employee” as he learned his new trade of being an elite SEC pass rusher.
“The fact that he’s sitting in front of that mic is interesting to me because he doesn’t really say a lot,” said defensive coordinator Tim Banks, looking across the conference room during Orange Bowl interviews.
“But he’s grown by leaps and bounds. And he’s always been a sponge."
Young developed into one of the SEC’s best pass rushers. He was an All-SEC first-team performer this season and garnered invitations to the East-West Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl.
He will turn 25 in March, so his time to play in the NFL is now.
But Young didn’t opt out of the Orange Bowl to the delight of his teammates.
“I was very excited because B.Y. is my boy,” said defensive tackle Omari Thomas, Young’s roommate. “For him to have the option to not play but still choose to play, it shows how much he wants to be out there with us one more time.”
Young believes he can improve his draft stock by playing well against Clemson. He could be matched up against offensive tackle Jordan McFadden and tight end Davis Allen, both NFL prospects. And he’ll have to tackle All-ACC running back Will Shipley.
“It can help me more than it can probably hurt me,” Young said.
How Young did against NFL-caliber competition
Young is projected as a mid-round draft pick by most NFL scouting sites. But his stock could rise or fall based on pre-draft workouts, re-evaluations of his game film and his Orange Bowl performance.
Scouts judge prospects by how they play against the best teams and individuals.
According to Pro Football Focus, Young’s best grades were in wins over LSU, Florida and Pittsburgh. He racked up 19 quarterback pressures in those three games.
His worst grade was in a loss to Georgia, when he missed tackles in the run game and didn’t record a pressure on 16 pass rushes.
So there are causes for optimism and concern. Either way, he’s facing an NFL career that seemed almost impossible just a few years and hundreds of shifts ago.
“The reality is that he’s taken every opportunity and maximized it,” Banks said. “That’s why he’s in the position that he’s in right now. Somebody is going to get a really good young man and a tremendous player.”
Reach Adam Sparks at adam.sparks@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee's Byron Young turned Dollar General job into NFL dream
