Jay Hayes Finds His Road Map At Notre Dame & The Football Field

At the start of the 2015 season, sophomore defensive lineman Jay Hayes seethed about getting red-shirted. That was supposed to happen during his freshman year in 2014, but a bevy of injuries along the defensive line necessitated burning his year of eligibility in the final three games, losses to Louisville and USC, and a bowl win over USC.

The news of redshirting as a sophomore led him to publicly air his frustration against the Fighting Irish coaching staff on his personal Twitter account, which led to a mini-suspension from being with the team for the UMass home game. What followed was a case of overcompensation for Hayes.

“I’m a passionate, emotional guy,” Hayes said. “Sometimes emotions can carry over, just taking control of my life. It got to the point I didn’t leave my room. I isolated myself. … Football was taking a toll on me, because I wanted to play so badly.”

Then the news hit him later that semester: Keep up his current pace in the classroom and there’s a pretty good chance you won’t be with the team, and the school either, in 2016.

“The academics slipped, because you’re putting all that time," Hayes said. "… That was a bad ride when they came to me and said there’s a chance that you might not be here if you don’t get your academics right.”

Leaning heavily on the wisdom of strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo — “Love him, he’s been by my side since Day One,” Hayes said — second-year defensive line coach Keith Gilmore and academic counselor Adam Sargent, Hayes said he found his road map to thrive. Once his academics picked up in the second semester of his sophomore year, the momentum carried over to his work on the football field during spring drills, where he became a co-starter, surprisingly at 285 pounds, at weak side end with more seasoned classmate Andrew Trumbetti.

“I ended up with I think a 3.0 (a ‘B’ average) — that was tremendous for me,” Hayes said. “I was locked into school, doing the things that it takes to be successful academically instead of just football, football, football. I have found a balance.”

His first two years at Notre Dame, he had defined himself strictly as an athlete.

“People text you: ‘Are you out there?’ You get hit from different sides … You start to get upset and frustrated," he said. "I understood how Notre Dame was, but I was young.”

Head coach Brian Kelly said it was no accident that once Hayes achieved order and consistency in other areas of his life, it would spill over to football as well.

“He’s growing up as a young man and you see that manifest itself on the football field,” Kelly said. “He’s a physical son of a gun, now … He’s one of our more rough-and-tumble, physical guys. He is really physical at the point of attack.

“At 280 pounds, if you’re a pulling guard, you have a hard time with him. At the point of attack he’s really stout, really physical — and he’s not bad as an occasional drop player into the short field. You never want to put him in much other than an occasional hook to flat-drop player, but he certainly can do that, he can handle that. He’s agile enough to play in that role.”

Hayes’ compact 6-3, 285-pound frame is more along the lines of a defensive tackle/three-technique, a la Sheldon Day last season, who played at 6-2, 285. He does not possess the same quick-twitch, speed rush off the edge like highly touted 6-3 ½, 250-pound freshman Daelin Hayes (no relation) or of the 6-3 ½, 255-pound Trumbetti.

The elder Hayes says he views himself as a defensive line foremost, which makes where he is positioned less relevant.

“I feel like if I’m a d-lineman I can play 3-tech, 7-tech, do [pass] rush — I can do it all,” he said.

Over the last month, he also has been involved in yoga training a couple of times per week, a pace he hopes to continue once the season commences.

“Yoga is intense,” he said of it fitting in with his personality. “Yoga is not something you do for two weeks and you’re good. It gives you more bend and helps with injuries. Keep working on bend and hips … breathing-wise it helps.”

For now, the weak side end position might be handled by committee.

“They all will have a role and they all complement what our defense will look like, depending on the offenses,” Kelly said. “Against a Stanford, (Jay Hayes is) going to be in against a big tackle. When we get into some more teams that want to play fast and not as aggressive at the point of attack, Daelin gets obviously his share.”

In some nickel packages earlier this month, the freshman Hayes and Trumbetti have been aligned at end, while the two strong side ends, senior Isaac Rochell and junior Jonathan Bonner, have been on the inside.

“Andrew has had a good camp,” Kelly said. “He’s played fast, he’s played with great second effort. It’s always about Andrew’s confidence and really making sure he believes in himself. We believe in him. At times he’s his harshest critic, and at times we’ve got to have him lighten up on himself because he works hard, he’s given us the kind of effort we want and we think he can give us the pass rush we need. Sometimes he beats himself up too much.”

Part of Jay Hayes’ maturity process has been to not only bring himself up, but help take others such as Daelin Hayes and Trumbetti with him.

“Handle things off the field with school, meeting room, encouraging teammates, bringing energy,” he said. “Energy is contagious. When you’re on defense and everybody is swarming to the ball, people are scared of you. … Instill fear in their hearts. That’s what a defense is trying to do — and we will do it.”

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