SOUTH BEND, Ind. — They hugged until the teardrops stopped, then smiled until their faces started to hurt.
And a week after that epic postgame embrace on Jan. 2 on the turf of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, there was certainly reason to do it all over again in Miami Gardens, Fla.
“There was a lot that went into that moment,” said BJ Payne, one half of the Sugar Bowl embrace and the former high school coach of the other half, Notre Dame junior linebacker Jaylen Sneed.
“There’s been a lot of perseverance by him, and then there’s been an ebb and flow and up and down,” Payne continued. “There was just a lot that went into that moment, so it was pretty special.
“It’s an absolutely amazing relationship. I’m extremely close with his family. He’s extremely close with my family. There’s not a conversation on the phone that doesn’t end with ‘Love you.’”
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And whatever happens Monday night in Atlanta, when seventh-seeded Notre Dame (14-1) clashes with 8 seed Ohio State (13-2) on college football’s grandest stage and in the sport’s longest-ever season, it will still be about love where Sneed and the former WWE wrestler and Ohio high school and small-college football star, who still mentors him almost daily, are concerned.
And using that to take on the next challenge, the next bump in the road, the next dream.
TV start time for the culmination of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff is 7:30 EST on ESPN, with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s retractable roof likely to be closed, given the Midwest-style temps in Monday’s forecast (high 34, low 22).
Payne will be there in person, just as he was for the epic 27-24 comeback over 3 seed Penn State on Jan. 9 in the Orange Bowl/CFP semis, for the 23-10 dismissal of SEC champ and 2 seed Georgia, and Dec. 20 in Notre Dame Stadium for the 27-17 ouster of 10 seed Indiana and its bombastic coach, Curt Cignetti.
And Sneed?
He’s the wildest of wild cards, moving forward, through one prism, because the recruiting jewel of the 2022 Irish class, head coach Marcus Freeman’s first, has a pattern of alternating cycles of promise detoured, promise delivered.
And yet the fact that he’s here right now, still, is a biopsy of why the Irish find themselves one step away from college football’s pinnacle for the first time since 1988. Plotlines like Sneed's that don't consistent of all right turns, but still have a hint of destiny as the destination anyway.
You know all those slogans that Freeman has elevated into mantras in his three seasons as Irish head coach?
Choose hard. The bumpy road. Question everything. Team glory. Those make up the soundtrack of Sneed’s journey since the QB/strong safety/defensive end left Payne and Hilton Head Island High School as South Carolina’s Mr. Football as the first in a wave of elite high school linebacker prospects flowing to South Bend.
And fueled the tears that fell on the Superdome floor and dampened the No. 3 “Nuke” jersey Payne wears to the games in Sneed’s honor.
“Tears of joy,” Sneed qualified on Wednesday after practice at the Irish Athletics Center on the ND campus, two days ahead of the team departure for Atlanta. “It meant so much, just knowing that he was one of the first guys that believed in me.”
And continued to believe in Sneed, even when he didn’t himself.
Since December, they — Sneed and Payne —been in sync with their belief. In Sneed. In how he fits at Notre Dame and what the next steps are to elevate.
And the play that epitomizes that best was a blitz Sneed came on late in the win over Penn State last Thursday nigh that hurried Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar into a bad decision and a throw with very little zip behind it.
Cornerback Christian Gray, on a redemptive run of his own of late, cradled the pass for an interception at the Penn State 42-yard line with 33 seconds left in a 24-24 game. Twenty-six seconds off the game clock and 13 yards later, another comeback kid — Mitch Jeter — nailed a 41-yard field goal that flirted with the right upright before curving good and into Notre Dame lore.
“After the play, I told Christian, you'd better think big,” Sneed said. “I was joking, though. But it was a great play by him, and just to know that I did it for my brothers and my team and we went out there and stopped them and were able to win the game. Really, what it means to me, just being able to win.”
It’s also what trust looks like to Sneed, the culmination of it anyway.
And trust tells Sneed’s story better than his cumulative numbers in 15 games this season — 50 tackles, six of them for losses with 2.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and two QB hurries.
The dips and spikes in playing time — as few as 12 snaps Sept 28 against Louisville — and performance are the more telling context. And the despair that sometimes came with them. Last year too. Sneed said after the road win at Duke in 2023, in which he played one snap, he stopped talking to his own family for a couple of days.
But eventually he’d push forward.
And Payne worked in concert with the Irish coaching staff to keep that part of the process from hitting a dead end.
“On his end, probably a lot of praying,” Payne said of what got Sneed through the darkest times. “We’ve had, with his mom, we’ve had what I call, ‘Coming to Jesus meetings.’ And I think it was just him relaxing and honestly, some self-accountability.
“There were some things that at times he’d get frustrated with and I’d be like, ‘Hey, let’s talk about this in realistic terms.’ Because there’s a point when I put on the — however you want to call it — the high school coach’s hat. Look after him. To the dad hat to I’m also a football coach, so I understand some things.
“But he just persevered and just kept working. It’s an everyday learning process. And it’s not just for Jaylen, it’s for all those kids. It’s a very, very sophisticated defense. It is an elite-level NFL defense scheme-wise, where you have to be where you have to be.
“You have to know your assignments and you have to take care of absolutely everything on your end. And I know Marcus talks about it a lot — the team glory thing. And I know some people roll their eyes at that.
"But I think when you look at the success of that team this year, it’s truly what it is. Nobody’s worrying about who’s getting the recognition. It’s doing the other things.”
And one of those things Sneed is starting to come into his own at is pass rush. When the Irish need it most. With sack leader Rylie Mills out since the Indiana game with a knee injury, and top pass rushers Jordan Botelho and Boubacar Traore September injury casualties.
Sneed, however, grew up wanting to play quarterback — not terrorize them — even hitting the camp circuit hard as a middle-schooler to fuel that aspiration. And he played the position intermittently in high school, but more out of injuries/necessity than Payne believing it would lead to anything beyond Hilton Head Island.
Strong safety appeared to be the ideal track, but a coaching clinic Payne attended before Sneed’s high school junior season struck a chord on how valuable pass rush skills might end up being for both the high school team’s present and Sneed’s future.
“It was an interesting conversation,” Payne said with a laugh about asking Sneed to move to defensive end ahead of his junior season, while doubling as the team's sort of emergency QB.
“I mean, I’ve trusted him from the start,” Sneed said of the move to defensive end. “My freshman year day 1, [Payne] told me I could be one of the best players to ever come out of high school. And then I got my first [college schlarship] offer, maybe my sophomore year.
“So, after that, I’m thinking, ‘This guy knows what he’s talking about.’ After that I just trusted in the process and kept working hard, and he continued to make me work hard.”
Every time, in fact, that Sneed goes home, he calls up Payne to come work with him on those moves. The same ones he used to rush Allar at an inflection moment in the Orange Bowl.
His versatility in high school, though, kind of muddled the recruiting process — not from a ranking standpoint. He was breathtaking athletic and was a borderline five-star by some recruiting services, and a top 50, four-star player per Rivals.
“Everybody would ask during recruiting, like what is he?” Payne recalled. “Is he a safety? Is he going to grow into being a 6-2, 260-pound twitchy D-end? Is he an overhang outside ’backer? Is he a nickel? Is he an inside ’backer? What is he? And everybody had different projections at different places.”
He showed up at Notre Dame as a 6-foot-1, 195-pound linebacker with very rudimentary actual linebacker skills. And the struggle seemed to be to convert this elite athlete into an elite traditional linebacker. Until it wasn’t.
"His versatility now is working in his favor,” Payne said. “He’ll play rover. He’ll play inside. He’s an edge guy on third-and-long situations. Sometimes he’s the standup 3-tech [defensive tackle] in pass situations. So, his versatility in the past allows him to continue that versatility now.
“With all their depth at linebacker, OK, everybody’s going to rotate through and you’re only getting 20 snaps. Where now, he’s getting 35-40 snaps, but they’re not all going to be at linebacker.
“I think this is one thing people have seen over the last six weeks, is everybody’s like, ‘Well, when he learns it, it’s going to be OK.’ No. It’s not him learning it. It’s him having the confidence in it. And when he does, his speed is at a whole nother level.”
Payne told Sneed after the Sugar Bowl he thought the junior and sophomore safety Adon Shuler were the two fastest players on the field.
“I’ve been down here for 13 years, and everybody talks, ‘Oh, SEC speed and all that.’” Payne said. “But those two to me looked like they were at a different speed that game. But I think he just has to continue to improve. Stay humble, which he has over the last six weeks. And just continue to play.
“And I think his ebbs and flows and ups and downs have personally made him battle-tested.
"I would love to see him at 235 [pounds] next year. He’s 227 now. I was telling somebody today, what people don’t realize is that kid has 3.5% body fat. At 227. Like his legs are like a horse, like you can see the vascularity in his legs.
“And that’s what sometimes people don’t understand. His metabolism is so great. It’s hard for him to just pack on that weight, because he’s built probably more like a safety. Adon Shuler is very similar, at least I assume.
“You see them both with their shirts off and you think, ‘If I looked like that, I’d never wear a shirt.’ I’d be the guy walking into McDonald’s and they’d say, ‘Sir did you see the sign outside? No shirt, no service.’ And I’d say, ‘I’m here for the Big Mac.’ I’d never wear a shirt if I was built like one of those guys.”
As for Sneed, shirtless or otherwise?
“I don’t think he’s ever going to be a, quote, traditional linebacker," Payne said. "I think he’s going to be a guy, who at every level in every situation, is the guy that can be the hybrid guy who has the ability to do a million different things. And I think that’s going to pay off very well for him, and for Notre Dame.”
And when it does, Payne will likely be there watching. And for a hug.
“There’s a lot of love there,” Sneed said, “But I feel like it was always tough love with him. I mean, he was the guy who took my joy and told me I couldn’t play quarterback long term, and that was my dream.
“I have a new dream now, and it’s based on trust and believing. But tough love is still love. Maybe the best kind.”
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