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Villanova's first football addition for the 2014 recruiting class will be Souderton High School's Rick Young, a 290-pound offensive and defensive lineman. He was a first-team all-Suburban One League Continental Conference selection as both an offensive and defensive player. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Rick O'Brien broke the news late on Monday night.
The 6-2 two-way athlete will likely factor in as a defensive player for Villanova, playing nose guard, in the middle of what has been a strong defensive line for the Wildcats' in recent years. The Inquirer named him 11th on their list of top-25 southeastern Pennsylvania football recruits in the class of 2014, and he was included in a list of the top-10 interior defensive linemen in the area as well.
He plays in a 3-4 defensive scheme at Souderton — which should make for an easy transition to Villanova's 3-3-5 — and has accumulated 95 career tackles so far. He accumulated 91 pancakes as a right tackle on the offensive line, and also participates on Souderton's varsity wrestling team.
At Villanova he will be able to work his way into the mix on a defensive line that will graduate stars Rakim Cox, Antoine Lewis and key player Keelan Malone after the 2013 season. His size on the inside is comparable to Lewis, who has started at nose guard for the past two seasons.
Young is a good academic prospect as well, reportedly claiming to maintain a 3.8 GPA over the last three years, while accumulating a few honor roll awards.
He was also receiving interest from Lehigh, Lafayette and Temple at the time of his commitment.