Notre Dame football: What Jaylen Sneed brings to the Irish
By Carlee North
The Notre Dame football program is having a special recruiting cycle, this time landing South Carolina linebacker Jaylen Sneed.
Notre Dame football has landed one of its top targets left on the board, as they got a commitment from 2022 linebacker out of South Carolina, Jaylen Sneed. The All-American was on campus for his official in mid-June, and there’s no other way to put it other than Notre Dame was going to make it extremely hard for them to get beat after that visit.
He soaked in a few of his visits just to make sure his decision was the right one, but in the end, he wasn’t going to say no to South Bend. Towards the end of his process, it was really down to Oregon and the Irish, but it was a battle Notre Dame wasn’t going to miss on.
Brian Kelly did a great job of building a relationship with the Sneed family and was a big part of this one, as he should be. At the time of Sneed committing to the Irish, he held 36 offers from the likes of Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, Southern Cal, and many others.
What will Sneed bring to the Notre Dame football program?
The 6’2 210-pound linebacker is going to bring length and physicality to start. His frame is a prototype linebacker in today’s game, with his arm length and reach being a major plus. His ability to play in space is extremely impressive, and that reminds me a lot of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.
He can put his hand in the dirt and get after the ball carrier or he can stay stride for stride with his guy in the open field on a wheel route, it’s fun to watch either way. His mentality is see, attack, and hit, and that’s exactly what he does play in and play out. Sneed’s motor is never-ending and his upper body strength is obvious when you see him hit someone.
He wraps up really well and isn’t afraid to come downhill quickly. Everything that was mentioned is exactly what you look for in a linebacker. Marcus Freeman and Brian Kelly wanted Sneed badly and they got the job done. This kid could be very special in Blue and Gold, and from what I’ve seen, I’d absolutely expect it once he gets in the weight room in South Bend.
With Jaylen Sneed officially joining the class publicly, there are now 18 commits, with ten being on defense, and eight on offense. Sneed will be joining a dynamic linebacker room that already has Joshua Burnham, Niuafe Tuihalamaka, and Nolan Ziegler.
Also to add, with Sneed joining, the top three rated recruits in the class right now are all from this linebacker room.
It’s just an impressive job by Marcus Freeman, it can’t be said enough, and it seems like we’re saying that a lot lately about the new Irish defensive coordinator. This was a monster commitment for the program, as they continue to stack elite talent in this 2022 recruiting class.