On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine: Alabama stretches lead for Richard Young

Lehigh Acres (Fla.) Senior High running back Richard Young has been primarily focused on three schools for much of his recruitment: Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State.

That trio not only has made him a huge priority, but each has a strong recent history of developing running backs and sending them to the NFL — his most important selling point. Other schools have worked to get into that top group, but thus far with no real success.

And according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM), one school has taken a massive lead over the other two. Following an expert prediction from On3 Director of Recruiting Chad Simmons, Alabama holds an 81.8 percent chance of landing Young. Ohio State trails behind at 14.9 percent with no other school above 1 percent.

“Richard Young is planning to take his five official visits before making a decision. So a commitment is not expected any time soon,” Simmons wrote in explaining his prediction. “Nick Saban’s program has put itself in a good position though. After the visit this weekend, ‘Alabama is going to be tough to beat,’ a source with knowledge of Young’s recruitment told On3.”

Each of the “top three” are expected to get an official visit still, according to earlier reporting from Simmons. Oregon is likely the fourth program he will take an official to.

Young is the No. 24 overall prospect in the 2023 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He ranks as the country’s No. 1 running back and the No. 6 junior in Florida.

Richard Young Scouting Summary

“Physically-developed running back who emerged as a national name as a high school underclassman. Has a good combination of play speed and power. Has a muscular upper body with room to add mass in his lower half. Uses his leg drive to run through tackles at the second level. Shows well above average speed, which is validated by his track times (around 11.1 seconds in the 100 meters). Productive as a junior, rushing for 1,755 yards and 19 touchdowns while averaging nine yards per carry. Will need to considerably improve his ball skills as a receiver out of the backfield, as he has a tendency to fight the ball. Most of his best track times came as a high school underclassman. Older for the class, turning 18 years old in the spring of his junior year.” — Charles Power, On3 Director of Scouting and Rankings

About the On3 RPM

RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. 

It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.