Why Javontae-Jean Baptiste chose to play in Sun Bowl to end college career
Javontae Jean-Baptiste watched multiple Notre Dame teammates with 2024 NFL Draft aspirations choose to skip out on Friday’s Sun Bowl.
It never impacted the defensive end’s decision to play one more game in a Notre Dame uniform.
“I can’t look at someone and say, ‘Well, he’s opting out so I’m opting out,’” Jean-Baptiste said. “No. Everyone has their own individual thing and their own basis for them that’s very important to them and what’s going to go on and transpire with them.”
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So why did Jean-Baptiste, who joined Notre Dame’s program less than a year ago after five seasons at Ohio State, choose to play against No. 19 Oregon State (8-4)?
“For me it was all about putting my best foot forward and leaving no stone unturned," he said. "I don’t want to say that there was anything that I didn’t do or wish I should have done. That was it. It led me to make sure that I did everything I could in my time in college.”
Head coach Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame coaching staff were glad to have Jean-Baptiste available.
“They were happy,” Jean-Baptiste said. “They just wanted the best for me and what the decision was, it was. It was all love for that.”
In return for his dedication to Notre Dame’s program, Jean-Baptiste was named one of four captains for the game. Linebacker JD Bertrand is the only captain from the season still planning to play. So Jean-Baptiste, safety DJ Brown and long snapper Michael Vinson were picked to replace left tackle Joe Alt, cornerback Cam Hart and quarterback Sam Hartman as captains.
“It means a lot,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I haven’t been a captain since high school. It feels good. I’m ready to lead the guys and push them to do whatever they can do.”
Jean-Baptiste will enter the Sun Bowl as the most-experienced player on Notre Dame’s roster with 59 games played in his career. Brown is right behind him with 58.
Jean-Baptiste’s first bowl experience came at the end of the 2018 as Ohio State played in the Rose Bowl. That’s when he learned how the lead up to the game can include plenty of time for younger players to develop.
“You haven’t had a chance to deep dive into your skillsets because you’re working scout the whole other time throughout the season,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Then once you get to that bowl prep, then it’s like, all right, what are the techniques and tendencies I need to improve on? How do I improve this? It’s all dependent on who the person is.
“Coaches get the deep dives into those players and make sure they’re continuously getting better. As bowl prep goes, as you get better, it’s time to come around bowl game time. You go back to work with the scouts, giving the ones a good look. Bowl prep is trying to create a space where the whole team is trying to elevate.”
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Boubacar Traore, one of Notre Dame’s freshman defensive ends, could be in line for a few opportunities in the Sun Bowl after being limited to four games during the regular season to qualify for a redshirt season. The 6-foot-4, 237-pound Traore is listed as the No. 3 vyper end and No. 3 field end on Notre Dame’s official depth chart for the Sun Bowl.
“Boubacar has a high ceiling,” Jean-Baptiste said. “Him being a freshman and how he moves, he’s a great athlete. When I get the chance when he has his reps or we’re in one on ones, just trying to coach him and tweak him on certain things and just make sure everything is right for him. As I do that, he’s been progressively improving.”
Notre Dame’s starting defensive line remains entirely intact heading into the Sun Bowl thanks to defensive tackle Rylie Mills and nose tackle Howard Cross III opting to not only play in the game but return to Notre Dame next season. Like Javontae-Baptiste, Mills and Cross played the best seasons of their career in 2023.
Jean-Baptiste is excited to see what the defensive line can do next season with those two back.
“It means a lot for that front four,” he said. “You got a lot of guys in that room that have some experience but then you get two more veteran type of guys back. Other guys are still going to have to play, but it just leaves more time for growth and development for everyone in the room.
“They get to coach a new set of young guys. They get to make sure those who are freshmen who are still young that turn into sophomores grow more. They’re the most knowledgeable in the room. I hope they drop something on them.”
Notre Dame’s defensive line played a significant role in the Irish entering bowl season ranked No. 1 in team passing efficiency defense (94.91), No. 4 in passing yards allowed (154.2 per game), No. 8 in scoring defense (16.6 points per game), No. 8 in total defense (282.9 yards per game), No. 32 in rushing defense (128.8 yards per game) and No. 44 in team sacks (2.25 per game).
The Irish had experienced playmakers at every level, and that will remain the case in the Sun Bowl.
“What made the defense so good is that everyone did their job,” Jean-Baptiste said. “No one ever got too greedy. If their assignment was this gap, they stayed in this gap and let the person whose gap that ball was going through make the play. Sometimes in defenses, a lot of people get greedy and don’t understand the assignments and everything. Stuff can go wrong.
“With us, you’ve seen it throughout the workouts and everything. You know and love and trust your brother. When you get on the field, you look to your right and left and are like, all right, I can play my hardest for this set of guys because I know they’re going to do their job.”
Jean-Baptiste will get to do that one last time on Friday. His final year of college football served as an NFL audition, and he made the most of it.
Jean-Baptiste finished the regular season as Notre Dame’s leader in tackles for loss (9.5), sacks (4), and quarterback hurries (10). His 47 tackles tied unanimous All-America safety Xavier Watts for fourth in the team. He also blocked a field goal against Wake Forest and returned a blocked field goal, which teammate Jason Onye knocked down, for a touchdown against Stanford.
Jean-Baptiste has one more game to define himself to NFL evaluators. But it’s more about being true to himself.
“I feel like I didn’t have to come back to prove anything to anybody, but I just wanted to showcase who I was, truly,” Jean-Baptiste said. “What they thought before, that’s on them. What they think after I came here, that’s on them. I just feel like I came back to college to give it my all. I feel like I’ve pretty much done that.”
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