At a prospect camp at the University of Iowa in 2019, Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz had his eyes on a handful of players.
One was a 6-foot-5, 240-pound defensive end from Illinois named Lukas Van Ness. Another was a 6-foot-6, 240-pound defensive end from Marshall, Minnesota named Yahya Black.
"It was a summer camp at the prospect camps, and it was a night, pretty sure it was a Friday night, but it was a nighttime camp," Ferentz recalled. "And what I remember, it was (Black) and Lukas Van Ness were both here at the same time. And the reason I remember is because Lukas Van Ness' dad was just pacing like, relax. You're making me nervous. He's pacing up and down.
"But we offered both guys, and the one thing I remember about why it was just like he was, (Black) was the most dominant kid in the camp. He's always been a big guy, and he's got that potential, that growth potential, certainly when he got here, he was just kind of scratching the surface a little bit."
Little did Ferentz know that he was going to get a player in Black who was not only going to grow as a person and player at Iowa, but as a human being, as well.
Black was a standup edge rusher at Marshall High School, located in Marshall, Minn., between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls, S.D., and left tackle for head coach Terry Bahlmann.
But Bahlmann always had an idea his star player would put on more weight when he got to college.
Black was a standout basketball and track athlete at Marshall. He was agile enough to set the school single-season sack record with 17.5 his junior season from his edge rushing spot.
"He was the guy when we came home, if there's any leftovers, he took the whole thing with him," Bahlmann said with a laugh. "We knew when track and basketball were done for him, he would put some good weight on."
Little did Bahlmann and Ferentz know that Black would turn himself into a 335-pound defensive tackle.
"I actually thought he might go as an offensive tackle to college," Bahlmann said. "That's where, like Kansas State, Minnesota, offered him as an offensive tackle, but he wanted to play defense. And obviously it turned out."
Turns out, Black likes to hit people. And Iowa offered him that chance.
"If you have ever been in the building with any of those guys from the offensive side of the ball, but especially the defensive side of the ball, it's just the consistency that's always there that never leaves," Black said of Iowa. "That whole culture has been built around KF (Ferentz) and he really upholds that to everybody's standards."
That's why when Bahlmann took Black to Iowa, his signing there was a done deal.
"He was going unnoticed, he didn't like a lot of the hype stuff," Bahlmann said. "So I had actually taken to Kansas State camp, and they had offered there right away on sight. He won hands down all the one-on-ones at that time. He weighed about 250 because he was a football, basketball, track kid, so obviously he lifted. But he was doing a lot of sports, and his weight was down.
"And then we went to Iowa and they offered on the spot. He came back and told me he fell in love with the University of Iowa, so he was done recruiting. And I said, 'You want to listen to anything else?' Nope, I'm done. 'OK.'"
Like many big, powerful run stuffers, Black is a no-nonsense guy.
"Yeah, Yahya doesn't talk a lot," said Steelers' rookie safety Sebastian Castro, Black's teammate at Iowa, as well. "He lets his play do the talking. He's a man of few words."
He's all business and always has been.
Bahlmann had a good senior group during Black's freshman season – led by future NFL first-round draft pick quarterback Trey Lance – so he didn't play all that much his first year in high school. But he quickly became a standout star at Marshall, in large part, because of his serious attitude.
"I knew he was going to be a special guy, probably about his freshman year," Bahlmann said. "He was pretty slender, but he had no-nonsense approach and loved to work and loved to compete. So when you get those combinations, you knew it was going to take him far."
How far it can now take him in the NFL remains to be seen.
Possessing excellent size and length, Black is an ideal 3-4 defensive end. Former Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau would have loved him as a two-gapping specialist capable of taking on multiple blockers and allowing the linebackers to clean things up.
The Steelers now ask their defensive linemen to get upfield and rush the passer a little more than they did a decade ago. But there's still room for players of Black's talents who can stuff the run.
And after his performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he performed well in the shuttles and positional drills for a man his size, there's a belief he could just be scratching the surface as a pass rusher.
That's where learning from the likes of Cam Heyward can come into play.
Having not only Black, but first-round pick Derrick Harmon, learning the tricks of the trade from Heyward is extremely beneficial.
"It's like being in the church - youth and wisdom; he has youth, and Cam has wisdom," Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said. "So some things you try to give to a person, but I think a lot of players respect other players who've been through it, and that's going to be the benefit of having someone like Cam."
And Black is a willing student.
He knows just being big isn't going to mean anything if he also doesn't have production.
"There's always big guys everywhere," he said.
There are. But they aren't always true football players.
And Black is a true football player.
"We've had many guys with size and abilities, but I told the NFL people, from my vantage point, at least, I think the best is still to come," Ferentz said of Black. "He's had some injuries he's had to deal with during his time here. And maybe I'm old-fashioned, I don't know, but I do believe guys get better when they practice. I just believe it, the more the more you play and the more you practice, the better you get.
"I just think there's more there. I think when he still can play faster and can play more fluidly, and I think that's waiting for him. So to me, a little bit more time, a little bit more experience, he's going to take another step of learning all those types of things. But I think you'll see continued growth and development with him."
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Those injury issues limited Black here and there. But he did play through a lot of stuff, recording 85 tackles and 4.5 sacks to go along with 12 tackles for a loss and seven pass defenses over 27 games in his final two seasons.
Bahlmann, like Ferentz, believes the best is yet to come.
"He's such a hard worker, I'd be surprised if he isn't a success," Bahlmann said. "And he's such a good kid. He'll do anything it takes to help his team win."
