DUBLIN — It’s still a bit hard to believe for Sylvain Yondjouen that he’s in the position he is in as a 26-year-old. Not as unbelievable as when he was doing it five years ago, but still rather remarkable given the path that led to its development.
“I remember when I started camps my freshman year, my sophomore year, my junior year, like, ‘Damn, it’s gonna be long.’ And it was long,” Yondjouen said. “This camp it just went like this (he said with a snap of the fingers). The two weeks went fast. It went so much faster than I thought it would go. That just made me realize, like, this is it. We gotta be locked in because we’re not coming back next year, so this is the time.”
Sylvain Honore Yondjouen Kouengoua is, indeed, 26 years of age, a fact which makes one do a double take when learning the biography of a man still chasing an NFL dream and still striving to become a consistent force for the Georgia Tech defense. But the Belgium-born defensive end is, in reality, still a baby when it comes to football acumen.
Throw in a couple of knee injuries and a pandemic and the picture becomes clearer as to why Yondjouen hasn’t reached his full potential yet.
“Went through the four years, went through COVID. It was hard on me,” Yondjouen said. “At some point during COVID it was like, ‘Is it still gonna be happening? Is it still possible?’ After my first injury I was like, ‘Well let’s just go through the injury, I still got two years, let’s make sure I get my degree and then we’ll see how football goes.’
“Now we get to that last year, you just get through that last camp, it’s like, ‘Damn, this is really it. This is where it starts for the next level.’ I’m just 100% focused on playing the best I can, and then we’ll see how this season goes.”
Youndjouen grew up in Ruisbroek, Belgium, a town about 20 minutes to the southeast of Brussels. It was there that Yondjouen, a son of a once-aspiring gymnast and a highly competitive handball player, mostly played soccer and swam on the weekends.
But it was a fateful day as a 16-year-old that a friend introduced Yondjouen to American football. Yondjouen went to a practice (yes, there are club football teams in Europe) and was smitten. He said he went home and found a video on the internet titled, “The Hardest Hits in Football.”
Yondjouen was good enough to play for the Brussels Black Angels, a club team, and eventually Belgium’s national team. In a match for the latter squad against Spain, Yondjouen was approached by someone who spoke to him about Brandon Collier. Collier is the founder of PPI Recruits, which aids Europeans in finding spots in America to play football.
Collier and Yondjouen began to train together, which meant Yondjouen taking a three-hour bus ride from Belgium to Germany. It wasn’t long until Collier saw the potential and convinced Yondjouen, now only two years removed from knowing anything about the sport at all, to come to the United States for an opportunity to take this football thing to the next level.
“Just to be able to train with him, to really get into the mindset of, ‘You’re going to America to play, to do those combines and those kids have been dreaming of it, and you’re just walking in there, and you’re just starting in there. You gotta realize they’re gonna be fighting for those spots. It’s not just gonna be fun and giggles,’” Yondjouen said. “He helped me lot understanding where I was coming from, where I was going to and what I was intent to do.”
Yondjouen made waves during his first sojourn to America. Towson was the first program to offer him a scholarship, then the letters continued to roll in. He stayed in touch with coaches and staff members via X (formerly Twitter) and sent out highlight videos he had made.
One program began to stick out from the rest: Arizona. And Yondjouen learned, much to he and his family’s delight, he was afforded five official recruiting visits. So off the Yondjouens went to Arizona, and in November 2018, Yondjouen gave a verbal commitment to play for the Wildcats.
“They were like, ‘You’re coming here?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah I’m coming here.’ That’s what they wanted to hear,” Sylvain said. “We come back home and we found out I still had four official visits and those four are full-paid. My mom is like, ‘Let’s take another trip to America!’ ”
And this is how Yondjouen became a Jacket.
Yondjouen (6-foo-4, 260 pounds) chose Temple as his second school to officially visit, having previously formed a relationship with Geoff Collins during the recruiting process. Yondjouen admitted he wasn’t serious about playing for Temple, but when Tech hired Collins in December 2018, everything changed for Yondjouen.
Even if he still wasn’t sure how all this recruiting worked.
“In my head I was stuck on the verbal commit. I told Arizona I was gonna be there. I’m not gonna go back on my word,” Yondjouen said. “(Collier) talked to me and he was like, ‘Man, this is your life, it’s not theirs. You gotta see what you’re gonna do later in life. You never know if you’re gonna get hurt or what’s gonna happen so what’s the best future for you?’ We looked at Arizona and we looked at Georgia Tech and obviously it was a big difference school-wise. I changed my commitment and came to Georgia Tech. I think it was the best thing that happened.”
The past five years haven’t been exactly smooth sailing for Yondjouen, though. After playing in 11 games as a freshman in 2019, making 12 tackles over 11 games, he only appeared in the first three games of the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season before tearing an ACL. He said it took almost two full years before he felt 100% confident in his physical abilities again.
It appeared Yondjouen was then poised to have a breakout season in 2023. Tech brought him to the ACC Football Kickoff in July to represent the program. But in the opener against Louisville on Sept. 11, Yondjouen’s ACL snapped again.
“When I first met him and watched him work, I saw an NFL prospect,” Collier said. “Up until now I still see it. I was talking to his former DC (defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker) and before he got injured, he was playing as one of the better D-ends in the ACC. He was playing at a high level before his injury.”
The second ACL tear for Yondjouen was indeed a tough blow, but he said since he already been through it before, he knew exactly how to handle the rehab — and he began to go full-speed ahead toward recovery almost 12 months ago. Plus, he knew he had unfinished business in a white-and-gold uniform.
“I knew I can’t control what I can’t control and the rehab is what I can control. Now it’s paying off. I think I just trust the process. That’s all you can do,” he said. “Until we make it to that next level that’s the League, it’s no ‘it’s a good run’ yet. I came here with that mindset. When I got here my plan was just, come here to college, get my degree and play the best I can and then make it to the next level. Everything was possible. But being possible is on my side. So, I got to make it, to make it possible.”
Yondjouen is fluent primarily in French and Flemish, so the cultural adjustment has taken time over the years as well. He admitted that as a freshman he would have virtually the same conversation with anyone knew that he met on campus because of his limited vocabulary.
Then there was the ongoing battle of still learning football. Yondjouen said he had no idea, as a freshman, for instance what the terms field and boundary mean.
These days, Yondjouen’s English is top-notch. He has a degree in business management and has started a master’s degree program in international affairs and international security. And his best football days are still to come.
“Man, when you turn the film on you can’t help but see what’s there. He’s a guy that’s flying around. He’s coming back better than he was (before the injury),” Tech outside linebackers and defensive ends coach Kyle Pope said. “So those are the things that you love to see.
“Now, it’s going to be a continual process as we’re preparing for the season to get him ready to go. But right now, man, he’s working hard. He’s taking it a day at a time, a rep at a time. And once again, he’s doing what he’s coached to do. He’s doing what we’re asking to do. I’m very excited about that guy, very excited.”
Saturday’s game for Yondjouen, when the Jackets face Florida State at noon at Avivia Stadium in Dublin, will be his first in Europe since leaving for the States so many years ago. His mother, two brothers and grandmother will be in attendance. Collier said he plans on being present, too.
It will be a full-circle moment for a young man who didn’t know what football was 10 years ago. Now he has a chance over the next four months to become an NFL prospect and to create a lasting memory for Tech fans.
“The guy running to wherever the ball is. Wherever it is he’s gonna run it down,” Yondjouen said on how he wants Tech fans to remember him. “I used to be on kickoff and would hype them up. I’m gonna try to hype them up still. I’ll always be that smiling, positive guy. That’s who I am, trying to be like that and to keep it like that.”
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