Notre Dame Football Hot Takes: Practice No. 12 - Defense

Notre Dame is about at the halfway point of fall camp, and today the Irish practiced inside Notre Dame Stadium. Much like the offense, it was a somewhat sloppy practice for the Irish defense, but Clark Lea's unit had the better day.

Here are standouts and observations from today's practice:

DAELIN HAYES, DE: The senior end has been steady all camp, but today he was at his best, showing the ability to shut down the run game and to get after the quarterback. Hayes made a huge play during team, sniffing out a reverse play and being in position to blow it up for a huge loss, or at least he would have if they were allowed to tackle to the ground.

He was excellent playing the backside, squeezing down on cutback runs and zone plays. Hayes was good when the offense tried to run at him, showing the ability to get a push into the backfield and to get off blocks to the football.

Hayes had a number of quality edge rushes as well when the offense tried to throw. It was an impressive day from the veteran edge rusher.