Akron head coach looks back on Newcastle United’s Yedlin in college
University of Akron head coach Jared Embick recalls his time with Newcastle United’s DeAndre Yedlin on campus.
DeAndre Yedlin has been one of the most consistent players for Newcastle United over the last two seasons. He arrived at the club after previous stops with Seattle Sounders, Spurs, and Sunderland. But, he became a star in Northeast Ohio, playing for the University of Akron.
Newcastle Toons recently spoke with current Zips head coach Jared Embick, who was an assistant to Caleb Porter during Yedlin’s stint from 2011-2013. He remembers the recruiting process of getting DeAndre to Akron. “Caleb Porter was the one who identified DeAndre and then passed a lot of the work to me,” Embick recalls. “I worked with Caleb to convince DeAndre to come to Akron. I guess you can say it was a team effort, but Caleb had the bigger role.”
It didn’t take long for Embick or the Akron coaching staff to realize Yedlin could be a star. “I think his first game, we knew he could be a great player,” he says. “His speed and ability to overlap were really special, but we knew we had to help him learn the position as he was relatively inexperienced at right back when he came to us.”
While it’s not a massive university by most standards, Akron has been a soccer powerhouse for the past few decades and has churned out countless professional players. Embick believes Yedlin is right up there with the greats during his time as a Zip. ” DeAndre is top three with Darren Mattocks, and third would be close between Darlington Nagbe, Steve Zakuani, and Teal Bunbury,” he says.
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Not only does having great players come through your program help win conference titles and battle for the NCAA championship, it also works as a strong recruiting pitch for the years that follow. “I think it is important for recruiting any time you can bring up players that have been able to move on from your program to MLS, a national team, or in DeAndre’s case, the Premier League,” Embick explains. “He is a great player and a very recognizable name in the world. He has helped, as much or more than, other players that have moved on to professional leagues.