Maturity, Focus Driving Jaylen Sneed Ahead of Fifth Season at Notre Dame

It’s year five for Notre Dame linebacker Jaylen Sneed.

The South Carolina native has experienced the ups and downs of college football, but this year could be his best yet.

In fact, there’s a calmness and maturity from the 6-foot-1, 227-pounder that hasn’t always been present during his Notre Dame career.

“It doesn't even feel like it's my fifth year, but it is,” Sneed stated. “I just feel like my maturity has grown so much and my consistency and my focus. Coach (Marcus) Freeman talked about focus. I feel like that's been a big word for me this year – to be able to focus on what I'm doing and not try to focus on everything else.” 

It would be easy to focus on Notre Dame’s lofty expectations as a team or worry about where one stands (or doesn’t stand) on the depth chart.

Those concerns are in Sneed’s past.

Instead, his priority is simple. Become a better football player. And a big part of that starts with forcing more turnovers.

“I just want to show everybody that I can take the ball away,” said Sneed. “I want to get ball disruptions, punch the ball out and get picks. I want to show I'm a team player and show that I can make everybody around me better. That's really it.” 

New linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is more than familiar with Sneed. In fact, Jean-Mary was a thorn in Marcus Freeman’s side during the recruiting process, nearly convincing Sneed to take a visit to Tennessee after he had committed to the Fighting Irish.

That familiarity has given Jean-Mary a unique perspective on Sneed and the strides he has made over the last eight months.

“I think he's had a good camp,” explained Jean-Mary. “Jaylen can be his own worst enemy sometimes, but I think the best thing that he's done is (show) composure. Some of the out-of-control plays, he's been able to stay out of.” 

That goes back to coaching and it’s what every coach wants from a player.

You can’t teach Sneed’s athleticism, speed or willingness to play with extreme violence. Those traits have always been part of his game.

What can be coached is discipline. So can training a player’s eyes to focus on the correct keys and making the right decision at the right time.

Jean-Mary was quick to point out that Sneed’s growth has come from understanding where he needs to be within the defense.

“If I'm supposed to be in the B-gap because I'm kind of going fast with blinders on, I don't see the big picture and I end up in the C-gap,” Jean-Mary stated. “Those type of plays you want to try to eliminate. It comes back to the consistency and efficiency part.

“Everything looks like it's just working in cohesion. It's almost like choreographed. You want to see him get to that point, because mentally he's seeing it. He's able to fit it and understands how everybody around him is playing. He's getting to his point.”

Perhaps one of the more underrated keys to Sneed’s growth happened in the spring.

Notre Dame’s linebacker room was banged up, forcing Sneed and Jaiden Ausberry to spend significant time learning the Mike position.

It gave Sneed an opportunity to see and operate the defense from a different perspective, something that has benefited him four months later.

“It helped me a lot just because me and Aus don't really play both positions together,” Sneed explained. “I felt like it made us communicate a lot more and made us really think about the defense and really learn every piece to the puzzle more than just knowing our position.

“I felt like we switched out at both positions and then we had Madden (Faraimo) also playing very well too. Having us three in there, I felt like it made all three of us grow because Kyngstonn (Viliamu-Asa) and Drayk (Bowen) are the leaders of the team and we believe that. I just felt like it helped us all grow in our own ways.” 

Sneed’s job has also gotten easier with Notre Dame improving and investing in the interior of the defensive line.

The Irish appear to have one of the best defensive lines in the country and the increased size up front has given the linebackers more freedom to hunt.

“All our new big D tackles, Jason Onye, Tionne (Gray), Francis (Brewu), Armel (Mukam), playing behind them has been like a dream come true,” smiled Sneed. “They have gotten so much better from the spring until now. You can just tell by how hard they're working and how hard they're keeping to help us stay clean. 

“We all have relationships with them. We hang out outside of here and I feel like that's making us so much stronger and so much better.” 

Senior defensive tackle Armel Mukam might be the surprise of the group.

The 6-foot-3, 300-pounder didn’t see much playing time a year ago, but he has worked his way into the competition for a starting role.

“He's been coming in extra and doing extra work,” Sneed said. “He's just gotten so much better. Him and Coach P (Charlie Partridge) have a great relationship and I just think when you have a great relationship with a coach, all you can do is get better.

“I feel like that's one of the biggest things. He's just been going every day, one day at a time. He's not just trying to do it all in one day. Just one day at a time, he's trying to get better. I feel like that's been his biggest testament.”

Patience is one of the many traits Sneed has learned to embrace during his time at Notre Dame.

The next step is embracing the opportunity in front of him one final time.

“One word that comes to me when I think about Notre Dame is opportunity,” said Sneed. “Ever since I got here, I've been given opportunity, whether it was in the classroom, on the football field, in life. 

“I've had people to show me how to do it and what to do. I feel like opportunity and the people are what have stood out so much to me about Notre Dame.” 

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