Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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without any distractions. People are on the same page as me. I just prefer being out here really focusing more on my craft and building myself as an individual and as a football player. "It fits me where at a point people were wondering about me, and my family was wondering about me if I was okay. It's just peace and quiet and able to reevaluate how you work and how you treat others. There's just more peace in my life. That's what I really like about the place. "It's a great opportunity because I'm playing with the best of the best. I'm seeing guys that are going to the NFL. Coach Kelly has turned the program around tremendously and you're around first‑class guys." Although his body type better fits the profile of an interior lineman, Hayes said adjusting to weakside end, where usually the fleetest pass rushers align, has had its benefits. "You just have more freedom, and that's the thing I like about it," he said. "There's not really an adjustment when you're leaving double teams and combos. "It's more cover stuff I have to worry about, though. That's the only adjustment I've really seen. Right now I have no problem with that. I can drop back, reroute the No. 2 [receiver], chase down a running back at my size. It's not really a major adjustment where I'm overwhelmed. My goal is to learn the entire playbook schematically and conceptually." In many ways, he's already learned some lessons on a playbook for life. ✦ Where will Notre Dame's pass rush come from in 2016? It is one of the foremost questions of the new season because senior Isaac Rochell is Notre Dame's top returning career sack man with a relatively modest 3.5 over three years. "There's nobody that is coming out of the woodwork that goes, 'Well, he's got 15 sacks in him,'" head coach Brian Kelly said. "But collectively …we have to activate some more pressures from the boundary, some more pressures from the field, we've got to be able to activate some linebackers, as well, and they've got to be involved in the pass rush. "It's not going to be from one guy. It's got to be collectively from four or five different guys." Rochell is the linchpin along the line, but junior Andrew Trumbetti as the new starting weakside end could have the best chance to lead the team in sacks and/or hurries. "He's showing progress in the pass rush," second-year defensive line coach Keith Gilmore said of Trumbetti. "He's probably our quickest guy, he's got the most speed off the edge. Now it's just finding what he's good at. What's your pass rush move? What's your signature go-to? … We're figuring that part out, but he's got the physical ability to do it. "He's improving, but he's more in the process than Isaac." Although listed at 6-3½, 260 pounds, Trumbetti said this spring he would prefer to play at no more than 255 on the weak side. As a freshman in 2014 he recorded 21 tackles, 5.5 behind the line of scrimmage (one sack), and was fifth in QB hurries with five. Last year, though, he saw some action at The Fighting Irish Are Determined To Improve Their Pass Rush