Brian VanGorder On Daelin Hayes And The Notre Dame Pass Rush

Brian VanGorder first saw Daelin Hayes at the Irish Invasion in 2014.

Hayes, then a rising high school junior, flashed his trademark size and speed to the Notre Dame coaches that day. Hayes took home a scholarship offer, then visited Southern Cal four days later and verbally committed to the Trojans.

Though the recruiting process for the imposing 6-foot-3 ½, 250-pound defensive end from Ann Arbor (Mich.) Skyline High School took several twists and turns, VanGorder and the Irish ultimately landed the five-star prospect at a critical position.

“If you just looked at traits, he’s got the trait,” VanGorder said of Hayes.

And while his defensive scheme has drawn criticism over his first two years for being too complex, VanGorder anticipates using Hayes — an early-enrollee — in some capacity in 2016. Hayes’ “unique” speed, according to VanGorder, is now something Hayes has to take advantage of while processing the new information being given to him.

“We’ll find something for him to do,” VanGorder said.

VanGorder was not effusive in his praise for the 18-year-old Hayes, tempering some of the expectations on the No. 31 player nationally in the class of 2016.

“Again, there’s a lot more to that as we all know, so we’ve got to see how he develops as a football player,” VanGorder said of Hayes’ physical tools. “A lot of that’s relative to how he can learn and how he can see the big picture of the game."

Alabama led the country in sacks in 2015 with 53, more than double Notre Dame’s output of 25. The Irish were tied for 74th in the country. Senior Romeo Okwara led the way with eight sacks.

VanGorder said there's "nobody on our roster right now that we can claim," as being a proven pass rusher. For that reason, he said the Irish will have to depend on "everybody" for that production.

"I would say that again there’s a lot of improvement, as I watch pass rush a lot of improvement, but we’ve got to get better when it’s 11-on-11 now. Doing it in a drill is one thing, you get in 11-on-11 or a game you’ve got to do it then," VanGorder said. "...We’re going to be a team that gets pressure on the quarterback."

Hayes could be part of that effort.

“Does he have the it factor relative to getting to a quarterback? He’s going to do that, and he can do other things for us," VanGorder said. "Does he really want to get to the quarterback? We’ll find out.”

Hayes, who has yet to do media interviews during camp, battled shoulder injuries throughout his prep career. According to the coaching staff, those ailments have not slowed him down this month.

“He’s more physical than I anticipated him being,” defensive line coach Keith Gilmore said. “We were concerned about him when he came in having a little bit of the shoulder injury and surgeries and that stuff, but he has not let it affect him at all. He’s been very physical at the point and that’s surprised me a little bit more than I anticipated.”

VanGorder said his hope is that Hayes’ role by the end of the season is more significant than it likely will be against Texas in the season opener.

“You’ll see him at times, and we’ll see how that grows,” VanGorder said. “His first game in two-and-a-half weeks, I’d like to think that he’ll get some plays. The number of plays he gets I hope in the eighth week is a lot different than what he gets the first week.”

Hayes is going to be a “fine” player, VanGorder said. A big question remains, however...

“The answers I don’t have are the first time they’re in front of 90,000 (fans) and you all are writing about them and they’re reading all this stuff, I don’t know how they’re going to react,” VanGorder said of Hayes and Notre Dame’s other freshmen. “The first time they make a mistake and get beat, I don’t know how they’re going to react. We know we’ve got a group of freshmen with very good physical traits and now we get to learn about them in the game and the arena itself.”

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