Jaylen Sneed Is Ready To Dominate In His Fifth Year At Notre Dame
Driven by a national championship dream, Jaylen Sneed returns for his final year, aiming to elevate his game and lead Notre Dame's dominant defense.
The outlook on the Notre Dame linebacking unit is the highest it's been in quite some time. Yes, they lost former position coach Max Bullough to his alma mater, Michigan State, but they return all five of the players that were in rotation or started from 2025 and made a strong hire in former Michigan linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary . Amongst the host of returning players is fifth year senior Jaylen Sneed .
Sneed was one of the highest rated players in the 2022 recruiting class; the South Carolina native enters this season as one of the most experienced players on the entire roster and has been making plays for the Irish defense since his freshman year. Coming back for his final year of eligibility ended up being an easy decision for the outside linebacker. "All my guys stayed," Sneed explained.
"I just know in my heart that we have a chance at winning a National Championship. That's been my ultimate goal since I got here. Coming back for this fifth year, I felt like this is probably one of our best teams I've been a part of, especially with all the people on offense and all the people on defense coming back.
I feel like it would have been stupid of me not to come back and try to play for a national title. " Despite heading into his fifth season at Notre Dame, there's another level Sneed can reach in his game. Jean-Mary had them do an interesting drill this offseason called 'partners' where they team up with a fellow linebacker and they talk through with each other what they need to work on.