OU football: Ryan Young excited to carry out Venables' vision for SOUL Mission

May 22—Ryan Young was looking for the right opportunity.

A former NFL player, Young had spent the last several years working in a few different positions related to ministry. He worked for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where he served as a sports chaplain for different universities and as a character coach on weekends. He also served as the minister of recovery for The Hills Church in Texas and began iCoach Character.

He had been looking for an opportunity to return to football, and a few different coaches offered him positions related to player development including Kansas State, his alma mater, in 2019.

"My wife and I just felt like it wasn't the right job for me," Young recalls.

But something changed when he met with new OU football coach Brent Venables earlier this year, who pitched Young on the new SOUL Mission he was implementing in Norman. The SOUL Mission (Serving Our Uncommon Legacy) is focused on the "holistic development" of the Sooners' players, helping to develop them as people off the field with programs including career development, mental wellness, life skills, community service.

For Young, it was the perfect fit, and he agreed to become the mission's new senior director.

"When I sat down with Coach Venables back in February, and he shared the vision of SOUL mission, it was what I had imagined and dreamt that player development should and could look like at the collegiate level," Young said.

There's a couple of reasons why this opportunity stood out to him.

In college, Young was an offensive lineman under coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State, serving as a two-year captain. Young credits Snyder for opening his eyes to the idea of character development.

"Coach Snyder did a great job giving us tools as men [in] career development and just some of the tools that any young person man or woman needs in life. Coach Snyder provided us with those things... He challenged us from a character standpoint and an integrity standpoint."

However, Young struggled with some personal issues during his time in college. And though he was eventually drafted into the NFL in 1999, playing five seasons before retiring in 2004, things were tough for him after his playing carer ended.

"For me personally, I learned how to act right in my public life, but in my private life, I just dealt with a lot of addictive behaviors and things like that," Young said. "... When my career ended abruptly due to injury, I [left] the NFL and now all of a sudden, all of those character issues I was able to hide or may have been overlooked man just came to the surface in my life. And within three years of retiring from the NFL, I hit rock bottom."

But Young was able to recover, and it helped give him a passion for holistic development.

"My faith played a huge role in my recovery [along with] mental health and professional mental health care," Young said. "The holistic development of my character led me to ministry."

Coming to Oklahoma also gave him an opportunity to reunite with Venables.

Venables was a graduate assistant on Snyder's staff when Young arrived at Kansas State, and he was promoted to linebackers coach before Young graduated. It was there that Young became an admirer of Venables' leadership skills.

The SOUL Mission was an opportunity to work again with Venables, and Young was excited for it.

"Coach Venables has such a humble disposition and he holds the head-coaching position with great stewardship and intentionality," Young said. "He's a coach that focuses on the little things but at the same time, he holds it with open hands and he says, 'I'm the steward of this ship right now, but I'm not the first and I won't be the last.' I'm inspired by him because I see a coach that wants to leave a legacy and add to the legacy, but at the same time, he does it with great humility."

Young has already made an impact since assuming the new role. Wanya Morris, OU offensive lineman, is one of the players that has become close with Young.

"Me and Ryan talk all the time," Morris said. "He just connects to people in a certain way."

That's been Young's primary goal since his playing days — making connections and helping people discover their purpose. He began the iCoach Career mission in 2017, which helps people to find their purpose using their gifts and talents.

And he's hoping to do the same at Oklahoma.

"When we talk about the spirit, we're talking about this idea fundamentally that every person in this world is created for a purpose," Young said. "People that are most successful and thrive in life identify and find that purpose. And it's our job to help these young men find purpose, find meaning for their lives, discover gifts and talents beyond their athletic capabilities, and draw that out."

Jesse Crittenden is the sports editor of The Transcript and covers OU athletics. Reach him at jesse@normantranscript.com or at 405-366-3580