SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jaylen Sneed’s football season before last, he took more snaps at quarterback than the now-Notre Dame sophomore took at linebacker.
In 2022, the highest-ranked player in his freshman class, per Rivals (No. 46), amassed a modest 39 defensive snaps, all after Halloween and 17 coming in the Dec. 30 Gator Bowl victory over South Carolina.
“Me and [ND head coach Marcus] Freeman had a conversation early in the fall after fall camp,” said Sneed, one of the defensive stars of the Gold team’s 24-0 drubbing of the Blue in Saturday’s soggy Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium.
“He told me that I was going to redshirt my freshman year. That was kind of hard to take, but he knows best. I just wanted to keep grinding and eventually I did get to play at the end of the season. It made me better, because I just wanted to grind so much harder because I wasn’t playing.”
Saturday Sneed got to play and play a lot at rover, and made a team-leading seven tackles. While grad transfer QB Sam Hartman and freshman wide receiver Jaden Greathouse provided the offensive pyrotechnics, Sneed and the Gold defense held the Blue offense to 56 total yards on 44 plays, 2-of-12 efficiency on third down and 0-for-5 on fourth.
With last year’s starting rover, grad senior Jack Kiser, challenging for playing time inside this spring, Sneed has a clear path to significant playing time in the fall, maybe even as a starter.
The 6-foot-1, 217-pound Hilton Head Island, S.C., product has the speed and athleticism to return the rover position to an every-down linebacker, as it was when former All-American Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah manned it in 2019 and 2020. It’s Sneed’s coverage skills that will largely dictate whether that happens in 2023.
“Over the past three semesters, I’ve gotten a lot better at coverage,” he said. “I’ve learned how to stay disciplined and keep my eyes in the right spot. There’s still some growth there, but there’s always growth.”
And he wasn’t alone in that growth Saturday among the next wave of Irish linebackers.
Freeman limited incumbent linebacker starters, grad seniors JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau, to cameos in the Blue-Gold Game. And Kiser and junior Prince Kollie were held out due to injuries.
That meant lots of opportunities for Sneed, fellow sophomore Nolan Ziegler and early enrolled freshmen Drayk Bowen, Preston Zinter and Jaiden Ausberry.
“[Former Irish safety and Peacock sideline reporter] Kyle Hamilton asked me down the field, like, 'Which [position] group has stuck out to you today?'” Freeman related. “And I said the linebackers. … That's a deep position. And I'm extremely excited to see how that depth is going to help us as we move into the fall.”
Ziegler led the Blue team with 10 tackles with a sack. Zinter had six for the Blue, including two for losses, and Bowen five. Ausberry had three three tackles and a pass breakup for the Gold.
“It definitely helps a lot just knowing that me and my linebacker crew had a great day,” Sneed said. We got to tackle a lot of people and play a lot of football. It’s great for experience.”
Spring alternatives?
There are plenty of college coaches across the country who would gladly do away with the current spring game format for another productive practice or scrimmaging against another team.
Freeman isn’t necessarily one of them. He acknowledges the Blue-Gold Game’s warts, but feels there’s more to like than to loathe.
“You know it's televised nationally,” he said. “Every year, you're going to do some things differently schematically. And there's a part of that where you want to keep that in-house and not just show everything you're going to do.
“I want to see success on both sides of the ball. But we know that the jersey scrimmage (the week before the Blue-Gold Game) is really for that. Jersey scrimmage is for game-planning. That's putting your best out on the field. Whereas the spring game is [where] I want to get everybody a chance to play.
“Not everybody gets a chance to play at Notre Dame Stadium or will ever get the opportunity to play in a meaningful game. And so, it's a great opportunity to give the guys that you're counting on a chance to go out there and compete for a little bit, but also give the guys that might not ever step on that field in a meaningful game an opportunity to go out there and play in a real Notre Dame uniform in a spring game.
“And so, I wouldn't change it. I like it. I like what it provides for your team. I like what it provides for recruiting and what it would provide for your fans.”
He’s not opposed to playing another team, but that wouldn’t change the strategy of being as vanilla as possible schematically to keep from tipping off the teams on the schedule in the fall.
“And you're not going to want to get the guys you're counting on, that have experience, injured,” Freeman said. “And so, you're still probably going to hold back a couple guys. But I think to play another opponent would be pretty cool.
“Logistics on that, that's for [senior associate athletic director for football] Ron Powlus and [athletic director] Jack Swarbrick to figure out. It would be different, but it's no different than almost like an NFL preseason game.”
Reflecting on Styles
On April 15, junior wide receiver Lorenzo Styles took a singular practice rep — his first as a college player — at cornerback. On Tuesday, he spent an entire practice there and told the media in a post-practice interview how much he liked it.
On Thursday, the 6-1, 192-pounder was taken by the Gold team in the Blue-Gold Game player draft as a two-way player for Saturday’s spring finale. On Friday he was in the transfer portal, presumably as a cornerback.
“He just came and said he's going to enter the transfer portal, and you wish him all the best,” Freeman said. “The only thing I told him and his father was just I hate [him] losing out on an opportunity to get a Notre Dame degree. That's the thing. We all have players chase this NFL dream and chase this dream of starting, and playing a lot of football, and major college football, and that can be achieved.
“But the degree from Notre Dame is truly something special. And I want that for every one of my players, because I believe an education from Notre Dame and a degree from Notre Dame will take care of you for the rest of your life. And that's what I wish for all of our kids that come through this program. But we love ‘Zo. I love ‘Zo. And I wish him all the best.”
Vyper depth
Life after Isaiah Foskey, Notre Dame’s all-time leader in sacks, consists of three converted linebackers in the top three spots on the depth chart at the vyper position. All of them seemed to get shortchanged in the statistics logged during the Blue-Gold Game, especially where quarterback hurries were concerned.
Senior starter Jordan Botelho and sophomore backups Junior Tuihalamaka and Joshua Burnham were each credited with a sack, with Burnham forcing a fumble on his. But they were much more disruptive than those numbers show.
“Obviously, Jordan is the most experienced,” said Irish D-line coach Al Washington, who served as the winning Gold head coach in Saturday’s game. “He’s a leader of sorts in that position from his experience. He’s done a great job. But Junior and Joshua, those guys, they’re good players.
“You take Josh for example. He’s a vyper, but he could play [field] end. Then when you factor in third down, who’s to say all three of those guys can’t be on the field at the same time? That’s how we have to be creative about it. But they’re all going to play.
“The one thing we try to preach and promote is depth. To play at a high level, you need to have more than one wave in the course of a game, in the course of a season. Otherwise you break down. They play well off each other. It’s nice. Those three guys you mention, they’re all pretty close. They all help each other.
“Like you saw today, it was awesome to see. Those guys are capable of making plays, and they’re capable of doing a lot of different jobs on the field. They’re really smart. They’re tough. I love the depth. I’m really excited about that direction of that position.”
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