Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2020 Notre Dame Football Preview
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and finished his 2018 junior season strong, recording a career-high 31 tackles with 5.0 for loss and 2.0 sacks to set himself up for a triumphant return last season as a fourth-year senior, even in a backup role. With six tackles in four games to start 2019, including three for loss, one sack and a fumble recovery, Hayes was back on track, until a shoulder injury sidelined him. He was left with little choice but to return in 2020 for a fifth-season — free and clear of Kareem and Okwara — with a chance to finally fulfill his five-star expectations and become the NFL prospect that was expected upon his arrival. Listed at 6-4 and 270 pounds, Hayes enters this season with 41 games played, 78 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks — with the latter two numbers tops on the team. It is solid career production for a defensive end, but with that said nothing has ever come easy or stayed on script for Hayes. In fact, given his multiple moves and strange high school history, how he even landed at Notre Dame remains an intriguing story. Listed as a native of Belleville, Mich. — essentially the halfway point between Detroit and Ann Arbor — Hayes spent little time there during his high school years, and almost no time on the football field. As a high school sophomore in 2013, Hayes suffered a left shoulder injury on the third play of his season and was done for the year. Hayes moved to California in 2014 and began his junior season at a high school in Ventura, but a custody battle brought him back to Michigan after three games, and his season was again cut short. Then, as a senior at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Hayes needed surgery after injur- ing his right shoulder, again after only three games, putting an end to a rather nondescript and abbreviated high school career. "Just being young and having the game taken away three consecutive times, that hurt at first," Hayes recalled. "But I definitely think it helped me in maturing, understand- ing everything and not taking the game for granted." Three high schools, three seasons, only seven games, yet still a five-star ranking on his recruiting résumé? The 6-4, 245-pound prep linebacker was so physically gifted, that even with his limited work, Hayes was still rated by websites and publications as a consensus top-five player in the state of Michigan and one of the best linebackers in the country. Hayes could have chosen any college any- where, and he settled on USC very early dur- ing his recruitment. What Hayes lost in playing time through those three high school years he gained in perspective. After staying committed to USC for more than a year, he changed his college choice criteria and flipped to Notre Dame. "Football can be taken away at any time. Once I officially took football out of the equa- tion, it seemed like a no-brainer," Hayes said of reevaluating his recruitment requisites. "To make a decision based purely off of athletics is kind of foolish. Why not maximize every opportunity on and off the field that col- lege presents?" Irish head coach Brian Kelly said late dur- ing the 2018 season that Hayes had, "settled into a really good spot." Now, if Hayes can find that spot again, stay healthy and sustain the form he's shown flashes of for four seasons, then eight years of successes and setbacks, self-doubt and resurgence will only make him stronger. ✦ Hayes (9) has taken an outspoken front-man role for his team during a time of racial unrest. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS With a team-high 41 games played as an Irish defensive lineman, and five years of experience on the Notre Dame campus and with the football program, graduate student Daelin Hayes has earned the right to speak his mind on football and life. So it wasn't surprising when Hayes joined a group of almost every Notre Dame athlet - ics coach and dozens of Irish student-athletes to speak out and share concerns about the racial divide unveiled in the United States after the death of George Floyd while in police restraint May 25 in Minneapolis. Hayes' eloquent and powerful written message, accompanied by a heartfelt photo, made a poignant point and provided an important directive and respectful tribute. "You know the difference between right and wrong," he wrote. "You know a man be - ing handcuffed and having a knee placed on his neck being suffocated to death in broad daylight is wrong. "Ignorance is no longer an excuse. You see what's wrong. You just have to be bold enough to stand up and say enough is enough. You don't have to be black to do that. Right and wrong is colorless." Through online video interviews and social media posts, Hayes has taken an outspoken front-man role for his team during this time of unrest, a committed pursuit that perhaps provides a glimpse into what kind of young man he is, and what kind of future he will have. — Todd D. Burlage Eloquent And Emotional, Daelin Hayes Is On Point BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 93