Notre Dame’s Rare Repeat In The End Game
Seldom in college football does one position group on a team have two captains.
To repeat the feat the following season with two more might be a first anywhere.
That is the case at Notre Dame this year with fifth-year senior defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Ade Ogundeji succeeding Khalid Kareem and Julian Okwara as both the starting defensive ends and as team captains.
It is a prime example of what it means to reload.
All four signed with the Fighting Irish the same year in 2016. However, Ogundeji redshirted as a developmental player as a freshman, while the much more heralded five-star recruit Hayes had a medical redshirt last year in what he originally thought would be his final college season.
For Ogundeji and Hayes, different paths have taken them to the same destination for which they are grateful.
Last year at this time, Kareem and Okwara entered their final seasons with 122 career combined tackles, 33 for loss (18 sacks). Kareem went on to be named Defensive MVP before getting drafted in the fifth round, while Okwara was a third-round selection despite suffering a season-ending injury in the ninth game.
This year, Hayes and Ogundeji enter the 2020 campaign with more career tackles between them (134) than that graduated tandem, although not quite as many for loss (24.5) or sacks (10.5).
Still, the bookends are expected to keep Notre Dame’s defense among the nation’s best while vying for a second College Football Playoff bid in three years.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been anything in my life I’ve been more proud of, aside from choosing to come to Notre Dame,” Hayes said of getting chosen as one of five captains for the Irish this year, joining Ogundeji, fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book, senior offensive tackle Robert Hainsey and sixth-year senior safety Shaun Crawford.
“I’ve been here for a long time and to see the last captains come here and lead, I understand how much it means,” Ogundeji echoed of his new honor.
Succeeding Okwara at vyper end, Hayes actually has received second-team preseason All-America notice from both Street & Smith and Sporting News despite sitting out the final nine games in 2019 after having played “my best ball in my career.”
“One thing that stuck in my head last year — and I was kind of disappointed about — was that I felt I had more to give to this university and to this team,” said Hayes, who will line up at vyper end the way Okwara had. “I felt I had a lot more in the tank from a leadership aspect, from a player aspect, from a student aspect, just being involved in our community at Notre Dame and the community of South Bend.
“I just felt like there was so much more left on the table for me to give. And sure enough God gave me another opportunity, another year to come back, to be involved in the community, to stand up for what was right with our team. Our team stood for social justice and we continue to stand for that.”
Beyond his physical skills, Hayes’ leadership also manifests itself with his oratorical gifts when he speaks of his 2019 setback
“I felt like God was speaking to my heart last year,” he said. “I didn’t know how it would play out … I’m just so grateful for that moment. At the time it was heartbreaking, my season was over, but God has turned that around into a magnificent victory. I am so grateful for it … without the grace of God, without my brothers [on the team] and without my coaches, support staff and my parents, I wouldn’t be here.
“I would have been broken, I would have been discouraged, it would have been too much for me to handle. But I relied on my brothers, I relied on my family, I relied on my coaches, I relied on my faith. And I stand before you today.”
Meanwhile, Ogundeji, whose original pledge was to Western Michigan, also has become a symbol of patience and unbridled work ethic to get to where he is.
“I’ve done a good job with my football IQ, learning the plays and understanding what to do,” Ogundeji said. “I’d say my first year, it took me a while to understand what the plays were, even my second year. I try and take as much time to watch film, understand what the game plan was and how to run plays. Mentally, my preparation for the game is something I grew.”
All of Ogundeji’s 4.5 sacks last year came in the final three games while helping fill in for Okwara. He ended the season with 23 pressures and Notre Dame’s second-highest defensive grade, per Pro Football Focus. Now listed at 6-4, 268 after playing in the 250-255 range last year, he is eager to become a consistent force.
“I worked on my hands a lot, trying to get my hands in the run game and pass game — and my get-off,” he said. “I didn’t get a lot of third-down opportunities last year, but when I did, I had to work on my get-off.”
Ogundeji said in spite of the current pandemic, a good amount of live tackling took place during the preseason.
“The only way we can really do it is if you go full speed,” he noted. “During practice, we talk about going 100 percent in those live periods and playing fast. And even when it’s not live, going to the ball at 100 percent speed is the only way to simulate a game, not at 90 or 80. It’s one speed and one speed only.
“… You’re going to see against Duke a bunch of guys flying around. That’s what we’ve been teaching the guys — going 100 percent and flying around for 60 minutes.”
In some ways, Hayes said the pandemic has provided an even stronger commitment to preparation.
“Everything we have done has been with the intent that we would be playing,” he stated. “Every day, making that choice to treat it as if it’s your last, because with this COVID situation you never know what comes next.
“I think that it gave guys an extra hunger, an extra boost to give it everything that you had with nothing being set in stone.”
In Hayes and Ogundeji, there are at least a couple of rocks upon which to build.
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