Notre Dame added arguably the jewel of its 2022 class today when elite linebacker Jaylen Sneed announced for the Irish. The 6’2″, 210 pound South Carolinian had a late flirtation with Oregon, reportedly a favorite program of his younger years, but the Irish and particularly defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Marcus Freeman were determined to keep the pole position here. Sneed took a COVID-era independent visit to Notre Dame back in March, and rumors began to fly at the time that he either committed then or was on the verge. We don’t know if that’s the case, but Freeman and the campus definitely made a big impression on him and strengthened that impression when he took his official visit in July.
Sneed destroyed the field at the Rivals Five Star Challenge, significantly outpacing five-star Ohio State commit CJ Hicks to earn the linebacker MVP award. He also gave this rather amusing “discuss your finalists” interview to Rivals analyst Adam Gorney, which came off much more as “this is why I picked Notre Dame.” From the Rivals write-up of that camp:
Pound-for-pound, the linebacker position may have been the strongest at Thursday’s camp. Multiple five-stars were in attendance and all performed well, but it was South Carolina four-star Jaylen Sneed who rose to the top of the group and earned MVP honors. While he was every bit as impressive as the other linebackers in position drills, it was the one-on-one session where Sneed separated. That performance was highlighted by a pair of interceptions on well-thrown deep balls that Sneed stole from the running back. He brought an elite blend of athleticism and competitiveness to Thursday’s event.
Gorney talked Sneed up as a potential five-star in their final rankings. Woo buddy.
Also, I would be remiss not to note this: the 2022 Irish linebacker class now includes him at #70 overall in the 247 Composite, #107 overall Junior Tuihalamaka, #112 overall Josh Burnham (#29 overall in ISD’s Fab 50), and #314 overall Nolan Ziegler. Only once previously in the Brian Kelly era had the Irish landed two top 150 linebackers in the same class – #90 Shayne Simon and #99 Jack Lamb in 2018. This one features three, and you could make a solid argument that all three, and certainly Sneed and Burnham, are underrated. Insanity!
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9704 rating), #70 overall, #8 LB, #2 in SC
247Sports — 4 star (93 rating), #97 overall, #10 LB, #3 in SC
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #46 overall, #5 OLB, #2 in SC
ESPN — 4 star (84 rating), #97 overall, #10 OLB, #4 in SC
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (94 rating)
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame and Oregon, Sneed holds offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, among many others.
Highlights
Sneed’s high school, interestingly, sent him off the edge a ton. He has some potential there for sure due to his athleticism – but as a blitzing linebacker, not a defensive end. The one thing that jumps out from this video is how truly fast Sneed is. He can explode and keep exploding; the way he chased some of these plays down from the backside reminded me of Georgia blowing up countless running plays in the 2017 game. That’s the level of athlete that Sneed is.
Couple more examples from the aforementioned Five-Star Challenge:
These are the two reps that wowed everyone. These drills are almost impossible for linebackers, and Sneed not only ran step-for-step with the back repeatedly but he had these two interceptions. Incredible. That answers a big question for me after viewing his Hudl film; he looks very athletic there, but there’s nothing of him playing in space. He has answered that in a big way on the camp circuit. He also has some alpha dog in him – he relishes setting the tone on defense and, as you can tell from the second camp rep above when he pushes the kid off him after the play, he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. His game needs a little polish but he has an extremely high ceiling based on his physical tools and attitude.
Impact
Sneed will have competition in his class, but from the two classes ahead of him there will only be Prince Kollie, Khari Gee, and Kahanu Kia (if he doesn’t take a mission). There should be a full front line ahead of him – Shayne Simon, Marist Liufau, Bo Bauer, Jack Kiser, JD Bertrand, and Paul Moala all have likely-to-be-used eligibility for 2022, assuming all goes well. So the coaching staff should have the luxury of not needing Sneed immediately, but I strongly suspect he’ll find his way onto the field pretty quickly in at least a part time role. His physical tools are just too good to keep on the sideline. From there, the sky’s the limit.
Welcome to the Irish family, Jaylen!
I’m sure this will be a common question but how does he compare to our last two stud LB’s – Jaylon Smith and JOK? He seems to be in the same mold given your comments here – covers like JOK (at least in those two clips) but can come off the edge as a LB? Wow, he seems to have the whole package.
The descriptions that I have read have not gone as far as to put Snead on an equal pedestal as Smith, but every article praises this guy as probably the best LB prospect they have had since Smith.
Would agree here. He’s very good, and could push for five-star status before the cycle is done, but Jaylon was #2 overall. He’s bigger than JOK was at the same point – IIRC Wu was about 6-1/185 as a prospect – and accordingly he’s less of a S/LB tweener. I don’t think he’s quite as straight-line fast as Wu, but his overall athleticism is very similar.
Jaylon had all that speed and athleticism plus a bigger frame, so it’s tough to compare them. But regardless, Sneed’s ceiling is really high.
Butkus #4
This is 100% a Freeman pull for the relationship he has with Sneed and his HS coach for 15+ years, direct result.
One thing that stood out to me from 247 readings they said this was a South Carolina kid who wanted to get away and play outside SC and even the south…And yet it seemed like Sneed didn’t really know about Notre Dame and Notre Dame didn’t really do much to pursue him until Freeman got into the picture.
I get South Carolina isn’t exactly fertile or usual recruiting ground for ND, but to me this just is another example of how they’re not casting a wide enough net and not doing enough leg work showing interest in top 100-150 kids who might otherwise have interest if they actually get recruited by ND.
It’s beyond great Freeman was able to sell the kid and get him on board, but I feel like there’s bigger takeaways for Kelly and the program about how you actually close the gap on elite teams. IMO too often fans or others just lean back on making up excuses like most top recruits are “not a culture fit” or “wouldn’t have the grades” but really it’s a Notre Dame issue that their recruiting operation isn’t targeting (or isn’t able to target) kids like Sneed, who by all accounts seems like a just fine kid and student.
Was it Elston or Polian who said that ND could only recruit about 35% of the top 100 in any given year as what they thought would be fits and have interest? Mentalities like that may need adjustments when Freeman is going to sign players from that 65% that the “Kelly establishment” isn’t even bothering with.
This is a great point and hopefully the entire staff is learning from this. I would hope that this means that coaches like Rees and Alexander will go after more talented receivers and QBs — it seems like Taylor is already doing that based on his pursuit of Shipley and Singleton the past two years.
One of my fave quotes regarding Freeman and this recruitment: “Instead of going after Notre Dame kids and figuring out which ones are dudes, they’re going after dudes and figuring out which ones are Notre Dame kids.”
Saw that too, very profound. Sums up the shift in mindset the program needs. If they stay in the lane they’ve been in, they’re going to get the same results. What they need most is to attract recruits that aren’t naturally inclined to think Notre Dame right away.
Obviously can’t go off the deep end for what isn’t going to fit or work, which is a constraint and challenge…But it seems like the staff’s mentality or maybe just time/resource limitations paint them even more into a corner where they can’t/don’t seek players like Sneed.
In a perfect world, they don’t chalk this up to “oh Freeman had a great relationship with the HS coach, that’s how we got him” and look deeper.
Stuff like that drives me crazy when Kelly is all folksy like “gee golly, we’d love to have a QB like Lawrence or Uiagalelei” when he never even tried to recruit either of them! How are you going to get them when you’re not on the chase?
I get the circumstances around those anecdotes, it’s rewarding yet in a way bittersweet to me when Freeman grabs a top 100 player that ND never would have really had on their radar otherwise.
All good points! I also think the point the coaching staff always makes about not being able to recruit some large chunk of the top 150 recruits cuts both ways – because they know they can’t spend any resources on those that are cut for academics, it makes it totally inexcusable to not be aggressively recruiting each and every one who can make it in. At least make each and every qualified elite recruit tell you they’re not interested.
I strongly recommend everybody check out Chris Zorich’s recent podcast episode with Freeman:
https://youtu.be/S6VyxTdZZIo
Give that a listen and then try to tell me you don’t want to run through a wall for this guy. Can’t do it.
Very weird year in which it seems like Oregon, PSU, and UNC are our biggest competition for elite guys. Oregon seems to be recruiting better than they did with the other Kelly. Wonder if they can take a strangle hold on the PAC12. Maybe add some high end legitimacy we haven’t seen there in years.
Is that just a matter of where some elite guys are geographically this year?
For PSU/UNC, probably. PSU’s class has two 4 stars from FL, but the rest are midwestern.
But Oregon was Sneed’s second choice, and they do have one 4 star from OR, but the rest are TX x2, AL x2, AR, and CA. They are recruiting well nationally. For them to get consistent top 10 classes, they will have to beat out USC for those CA kids, so here’s hoping!
Mario Cristobal – who, remember, was Saban’s OL coach and recruiting coordinator – is a really, really good recruiter. It’s thoroughly unsurprising to see him start reeling in top talent now that he’s settled in.
Yeah. Mack Brown is also a strong recruiter. I am sure we will bump into him again. But it’s nothing compared to Oregon (or Vandy currently!).
More good news!