Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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26 JUNE/JULY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY TYLER HORKA T he only thing holding Jaylen Sneed back from being one of the Notre Dame defense's premier performers in 2024 is himself. Based on his play in spring practices, it appears he's no longer a hindrance to himself in that regard. He's ready to be everything everyone else thought he'd be. "Jaylen Sneed has — from when we ended bowl practice to now — made the biggest jump maybe of anybody in terms of being locked in, in terms of playing in football position, starting in his stance, moving with purpose," Notre Dame linebackers coach Max Bullough said. It's not like Sneed, Notre Dame's highest-rated signee (No. 26 overall) in the class of 2022 per On3, ever sand- bagged or was losing playing time for a lack of effort. His motor has always been there. What hadn't always been there at the college level, though, was an overall un- derstanding of the linebacking position and a thorough awareness of what needs to be done in the middle of the defense on every down. In high school, that wasn't the case. Things were easier for Sneed then be- cause he was a vastly superior athlete to his counterparts. See ball, get ball. He could do that, and he didn't have to play "in football position" or start "in his stance," as Bullough said, to make plays. As a freshman at Notre Dame, he couldn't do the little things — run-fit- ting gaps, sealing an edge, adequately dropping back into coverage. Notre Dame had linebackers on the roster who could, namely JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau, so they ate up a vast majority of the Irish's linebacker snaps. Notre Dame has also played much more nickel defense with five defen- sive backs on the field instead of three linebackers in the last two seasons, so Bertrand and Liufau were the two who got the call. Next in line was Jack Kiser. Sneed played only 39 defensive snaps as a true freshman as a result. As a sophomore, he played 239. There was a lull in the middle of the year when he played a total of 10 in consecutive games against Duke and Louisville, log- ging just one single snap in the narrow win over the Blue Devils, but he finished the season strong with 32 snaps apiece in games against Stanford and Oregon State. Two of his three highest game grades of 2023 per Pro Football Focus came in the final two regular-season games of the year. "I'm getting to the point where I'm getting comfortable everywhere, and playing in Al Golden's defense for three years has really helped me be able to settle down and play everywhere," Sneed said. Sneed arrived at Notre Dame a cou- ple of years ago as the face of his sign- ing class. That title was wrestled away rather emphatically by Benjamin Morri- son. But if there is a second most talked about player in the class, it's still Sneed. Heck, he might still be No. 1 because Morrison has so entrenched himself as a known commodity that he need not be harped on much. A fair number of 2022 signees have left Notre Dame. Some of them have started and shined. Others, like Sneed, have steadily upped their roles and are on the verge of becoming super special players as juniors. The following is a review of Notre Dame's entire recruiting haul of 2022. UP IN THE AIR There's a chance Sneed does not get over the hump because younger play- ers, namely sophomore Drayk Bowen and freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, might push him out of the picture. At the very least, Sneed will be used as an athletic pass rusher even if he does not take on full-time, every-down line- backer status. We just still don't know what the crystal ball says for sure. POTENTIAL TO PRODUCTION Linebacker Jaylen Sneed is among a handful of members in Notre Dame's junior class aiming to step into a bigger role in 2024