Miami finally finds its big-bodied, breakout receiver in Colbie Young. ‘Spectacular, right?’

Lackawanna [Junior] College football coach Mark Duda, the man who helped bring former University of Miami Outland Trophy winner Bryant McKinnie to the Hurricanes, figured a long time ago that Colbie Young might be Tyler Van Dyke’s new favorite target.

“Spectacular, right?’’ Duda told the Miami Herald on Tuesday, three days after the 6-5, 215-pound Young, in just his second game catching passes for UM, pulled in nine for 101 yards and a one-handed touchdown to help lead the Canes to a 20-14 win at Virginia Tech. “They threw the ball to him, what, 13 times and he caught nine? I’ve seen him make catches like that for a long time. It wasn’t a surprise. None of those one-handed catches was a surprise, either. Not even a little bit.’’

Van Dyke, coach Mario Cristobal and the rest of the Hurricanes are just glad he’s now theirs — and has two additional seasons of eligibility after playing only one season at Lackawanna before transferring to UM in July. Young caught three passes for 43 yards and his first UM touchdown on Oct. 8 against North Carolina.

“Amazing, unbelievable catches,’’ said Van Dyke, who first noticed Young last summer when freshman quarterback Jacurri Brown delivered a go-route. “He went up and got the ball and I was like, ‘Damn! He has unbelievable ball skills.’’

“Yeah, man what can you say about the guy?’’ Cristobal said, adding that Young might as well have been flown in “by a helicopter’’ and jumped out “right before camp’’ started.

“That guy just goes,’’ Cristobal said. “You know he’s on three starting units on special teams as well and doesn’t ask for a breather. He just wants more and more and more. So, he’s going to get more...’’

Young, a seemingly thoughtful, bright young man out of New York’s Binghamton High, was virtually unknown by recruiters and websites that rank high school players because Binghamton is not exactly a football hotbed.

Not recruited

“He played high school football in basically a little town,’’ Duda said. “He wasn’t a 5-star or 4-star or 3-star because no one even knows they’re there.”

After graduating from high school in 2020, Young took off the football season — the COVID year — and stayed home in upstate New York with his older brother Devin, a receiver who opted out from the FCS Maine Black Bears in 2020. A catch by Devin was deemed ESPN’s No. 3 play of the day in October 2021.

So, off he went to play at Lackawanna in Scranton, Pennsylvania, despite being a full NCAA qualifier.

Then, after his one season catching 24 passes for 472 yards and nine touchdowns, spending his practices going against Tyrece Mills, now a Penn State linebacker, Young suddenly had interest from schools such as Virginia Tech and Penn State and Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Young’s size is what Miami has been seeking for years, and his ability to battle and hang on to contested catches, not to mention his acrobatic grabs and leaping ability, are what could keep him a starter. UM, ranked 14th nationally in passing offense (319.8 yards a game), had previously struggled with receivers dropping passes and also getting hurt. Former top slot receiver Xavier Restrepo (foot) has been out several weeks but is expected back in the next few, Cristobal said Tuesday. In his absence, sophomore Brashard Smith has suddenly taken off and now has 341 receiving yards on 21 catches.

Also doing well of late is 6-3, 205-pound Clemson transfer Frank Ladson, UM’s next biggest receiver, with 19 catches the past three games for a combined 182 yards and a touchdown.

The Canes (3-3, 1-1 ACC) are preparing to meet Duke (4-3, 1-2) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.

“Colbie Young gives us something we don’t have... and he’s still learning,’’ said UM offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. “That was his first really [extensive] college game experience last week. It’s shocking to say that.”

Young credited Gattis for his last week’s production. “It’s really Coach Gattis. He hammers that into us on film, like, ‘Hey, they’re going to give us this look,’ and the look ends up happening.’’’

Large radius

Duda, in his 30th year as Lackawanna coach, described Young as an “awesome kid” who is “a tremendous leaper. He has great hands and he’s a super big, long-armed guy. His catch radius is really large. If you were a circle you’d be a three-foot circle and he’d be a nine-foot circle. It’s hard for a defensive back to play over the top of him because he can’t out-jump him. It’s hard to go around him. He’s a really difficult guy to cover.”

Why Miami?

“Just the culture,’’ Young said. “Coach Cristobal is an amazing guy. As soon as I got there for the visit, I just knew it was somewhere I could be at home. Just a great environment. Our team makes sure nobody is by themselves, makes sure we keep it a family bond.’’

Young said it was “pretty difficult coming from a different type of game speed.’’

“I was at a junior college, so getting to that speed of the game in the ACC and getting used to the players and how people move was pretty difficult. But it was a great job by my teammates just helping me move forward and never letting me take a step back. Just a little text here [by them] would be like, ‘Hey what do you got on this?’ Just helping me out to make sure I’m on top of my game. They were in off-season conditioning having my back, like, ‘Hey, you got this. You can get through this.’”

Young is still learning the playbook, but said where he’s grown most as a player has been in being able to tackle the intense heat of Miami. Binghamton, near the Pennsylvania border, has about 84 inches of snow a year.

‘Exhausting’

“It was pretty exhausting,’’ Young said of starting practice in August. “At times I was on people’s shoulders and they were just like, ‘Hey, come on, I got you. We’re going to carry you through this. We got your back. We got you.’’

Young, who said he wants to model his game after “bigger-body receivers’’ such as the NFL’s Tee Higgins and Julio Jones, got a text after the Va Tech game from last year’s UM record-breaking slot receiver Mike Harley. “Just keep up the good work,’’ Young said Harley told him. “You’re a great player.’’