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Is Daelin Hayes The Key To A Transcendent Notre Dame Defense?

A grin manifested on the face of Daelin Hayes as he described how he and his defensive teammates performed in a 31-13 win over Georgia Tech. The Fighting Irish defense continued its suffocating play, holding the Yellow Jacket offense to six points and 233 yards of total offense (3.9 yards per play), including just 88 yards on the ground (2.7 yards per carry).

But what was unique about this performance was the elite pass-rushing abilities on display from Hayes, who recorded five tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles. Per Pro Football Focus, the Irish captain also had three quarterback hurries, including one on a fourth-down play where Hayes hit the arm of Georgia Tech quarterback Jeff Sims and forced a key incompletion.

This was also the first game where Hayes recorded a sack since the season opener against Louisville in 2019. Additionally, his two sacks match his total output in 11 games in 2018.

When asked what was different, Hayes somewhat shrugged off the question, noting that this wasn’t the first game this season where he was able to explode off the line of scrimmage and blow past opposing offensive tackles.

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Notre Dame defensive end Daelin Hayes (No. 9) finished with five tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and a quarterback hurry in a 31-13 win over Georgia Tech
Hayes (No. 9) finished with five tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and a quarterback hurry in Notre Dame’s 31-13 win over Georgia Tech (Photo by Angela Driskell)

“A lot of people have been making a big deal about my production as far as being a pass rusher,” Hayes said. “A lot of times, I've been winning. There have been wins. There have been times where I've been close to the quarterback or I've had good rushes. Sometimes those plays don't come to you."

But on Saturday, he clearly looked like a drastically improved pass rusher. His stats may not seem miraculous for a former five-star recruit in his fifth season, but this is exactly the type of performance many Notre Dame fans always expected out of Hayes.

And I’m not so sure Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly would disagree with this assessment. At the very least, he saw this breakout performance from Hayes as a missing key needed to unlock the true potential of a defense that’s already considered one of the best in college football.

The Fighting Irish defense is fourth in the nation in scoring and on third down and 10th in terms of yards per play. ESPN’s SP+ also considers Notre Dame to have the eighth best defense in the country and fourth among teams that have played more than two games.

Yet, if Hayes can build off of his performance against Georgia Tech and play to the same level or higher every week going forward, then this Notre Dame defense could ascend even higher.

“Elevating the play of Daelin Hayes might be singularly as important as anything that happened today,” Kelly said in his postgame press conference. “He was at a different level of play. If he can continue to play at that level with Kyle Hamilton and the other pieces to this defense, then we're going to get to where we want to be...

“We need to continue to surround other playmakers with a known playmaker and Kyle Hamilton, that's when this defense starts to really become special.”

That’s because, prior to the Georgia Tech game, most considered the lone mediocre aspect of this defense to be its pass rush, especially when it came to generating one from its defensive ends. Notre Dame’s regular rotation at the position includes five players: starters Hayes and Ade Ogundeji and backups Justin Ademilola, Isaiah Foskey and Ovie Oghoufo.

In the first five games of the season, those five players combined for just six sacks (1.2 per game). Last season, even after losing a future third-round pick in Julian Okwara to an injury about halfway through the season and Khalid Kareem playing a portion of the year with a torn labrum, the Notre Dame defensive ends averaged 1.65 sacks per game.

It’s also worth noting those ends faced four first-round picks at offensive tackle, including two taken in the top 11. I’m not sure any of the six opponents Notre Dame has seen this season possess offensive tackles that will one day play on Sundays, let alone capable of starting in the NFL next fall.

All of this is to say that Notre Dame needed more than just the two pressures per game it was getting from its starting vyper end in the first five games. This equated to a pressure on just 7.75 percent of Hayes' pass-rush opportunities. But against Georgia Tech, his five total pressures came on 20 pass rush opportunities, a 25 percent pressure rate.

The real question is if this is a one-off performance against a below-average Yellow Jacket offensive line or a sign of more to come? Based on what Kelly has seen from Hayes in practice, the Notre Dame head coach seems to believe it's the latter.

“He's been single-minded in his focus for the last month or so in terms of really working on his craft,” Kelly said. “I've just seen a different player when it comes to wanting to be a dominant player in football. Daelin has always been a good player. He's been good at a lot of things, both on and off the field, but he has made a choice, a conscious decision, that he wants to be a great player.

“It has just been fun to watch this come together on the practice field. Now it's starting to show itself on the game field. It's his dedication to how he's been practicing and we're seeing it come to fruition.”

More importantly, as BlueandGold.com’s Lou Somogyi noted, a dominant pass rusher has been an indicator of championship-contending teams at Notre Dame.

All of sudden, there’s hope Hayes can continue to be menace off the edge, especially now that the proverbial monkey that is his first sack of the season is off his back.

“Today was a day where those plays came to me,” Hayes said. “I was excited. The first one is the sweetest, but it's also the hardest one to get out of the way. So I'm glad I could put that behind me and keep moving forward.”

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