SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Growing up in Winnipeg, Canada, Notre Dame early enrolled freshman nose guard Sean Sevillano Jr. had the ambition and the bloodlines to pursue hockey.
But not the brakes.
“I love hockey, never got to play it,” he told the ND football beat media during Friday interviews with the Irish defensive newcomers. “I took skating lessons when I was young, and I never could stop. So, that ultimately put an end to that and started my journey to the gridiron.”
A journey that included a lost high school freshman year in Manitoba due to COVID-19 restrictions, and then a three-year dominant run as an international student at Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International, before enrolling at Notre Dame in January.
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With cartoonish numbers that read like a typo from his senior season — 101 tackles, with 65 of them for losses and 14 sacks. From an interior lineman. Who showed up at ND last month at 339 pounds on a 6-foot-1 frame.
"The stats are gaudy, and they're no fluke,” Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia Jr. told Inside ND Sports last June, based upon his Sevillano’s junior-season numbers, which weren’t as gaudy as the senior-year ones. “He is a leverage-dominant player who has bought into the weight room, profiling as a force on a stout frame
"Both his upper-body and lower-body strength is ahead of most prep prospects at the same stage, and he has intriguing, yet somewhat surprising length on his frame. It enables him to get blockers off balance with power, but also with technique. He can anchor a run defense or pressure the passer regardless of alignment."
Sevillano’s goal, beyond forging his way into Irish D-line coach Al Washington’s rotation this season, is for there to be less of him, preferably by the time spring practice starts, on March 7.
“I would say I’m going to work down a little bit closer to 320,” he said. “I’ll ultimately always be strong, but to increase that speed. I take a lot of pride in chasing plays, chasing down guys in my senior film.
“You can see me going to chase down screens. It’s something I really love to do. But yeah, I want to work down to that weight and try and maximize my speed as much as I can.”
He’s working with new Notre Dame director of football performance Loren Landow to get there, with rave reviews for the month they’ve spent together so far. And big dreams for the immediate future.
“I’m beyond ready,” he said. “This has been my goal since I realized I could do this and I could play football at a high level. I’ve communicated to coach Wash and all the coaches here that I’m ready to play.
“I’m ready to make a statement, because, ultimately, I’m playing for this university, but I’m also playing for my family, my name on the back and my reputation.”
Junior-to-be Gabe Rubio’s absence this spring, to attend to personal matters, creates more opportunities to make a strong early impression behind returning All-American Howard Cross III.
Fellow Canadian and sophomore-to-be Devan Houstan, a scout-team standout in 2023, and junior Donovan Hinish will look to do the same. Cross, meanwhile, finished last season with 66 tackles — second-most among Power 5 front-four lineman nationally in 2023 and the most by an Irish front-four lineman since Trevor Laws (112) in 2007.
Sevillano has been intentional about seeking Cross to work out with him, though hard work comes naturally. And he’s had a tattoo since age 16 to that effect to remind him if he ever forgets.
“[It says] ‘Don’t be upset by the results you didn’t get with the work you did not do.’” he said “To me, it’s the big symbol of put your head down and get to work, because nothing comes that isn’t earned.
“If you didn’t earn it, it will be taken away. That’s a constant reminder to me.”
His work in the classroom will come as a neuroscience and behavior major for the 4.0 high school student.
“[This semester] I’m taking different baseline classes,” Sevillano said. “History, math, theology — which has been one of my favorites. I really enjoy my professor’s lectures. I’m very faithful, so I enjoy talking and thinking about religion and what might be beyond death, all that.”
Immediately in front of him is a chance to soak up his love of hockey, as a regular attending the ND hockey team’s games, and the quest to get stronger in the weight room, while pushing toward his goal of 320 pounds.
“I’d say regardless, I still have the ability,” Sevillano said. “But I think that would unlock a certain part of my game that allows me to play faster and allows me to play more confident and possibly not leave anything left in the tank.”
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