Two Notre Dame football freshmen with highly anticipated debuts
Notre Dame has an opportunity to get some freshmen on the field over the next two weeks if it takes care of business against inferior foes. Easier said than done (See: losses to Marshall and Stanford). But wins over then-No. 16 Syracuse and then-No. 4 Clemson could have indicated the Fighting Irish are ready to roll over Navy and Boston College.
Here are two freshmen BlueandGold.com writers Tyler Horka and Todd D. Burlage would like to see on the field in the next two weeks.
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Tyler Horka: Dilly, Dilly? No; Billy, Billy
I’ll be the one to get this out of the way: quarterback Steve Angeli technically made his debut with handoff snaps vs. UNLV and Syracuse. So we took this a different direction.
I took it an entirely different direction.
Nobody thinks about offensive linemen as splashy, flashy freshmen making career debuts. But I am of the belief Notre Dame has something special in Billy Schrauth. And with two graduate student guards, Josh Lugg and Jarrett Patterson, departing the program at the end of the season, the Irish are going to need to find the future in understudies who are already on the roster.
Notre Dame looked to Marshall graduate transfer and former All-American Cain Madden for help at right guard prior to the 2021 season. He did not live up to the lofty standard he set for himself with a stellar 2020 season with the Thundering Herd.
Notre Dame’s successors to Lugg and Patterson are likely already wearing blue and gold uniforms. They could be rising senior Andrew Kristofic and rising junior Rocco Spindler, but they have both been in South Bend long enough for warranted suspicion to arrive if they can be week in and week out starters. Kristofic was one in 2021, but he got phased out. And now he’s got younger competition to contend with.
Like Joe Alt and Blake Fisher grabbing hold of starting spots early in their careers, Schrauth might be the player nobody is talking about who could do it himself.
Todd D. Burlage: Jaylen Sneed will be fun to watch
When it comes to the anticipation of seeing a freshman make their career debut, I’m not sure my mind has ever drifted to an offensive lineman, as my colleague Tyler Horka’s did.
That’s not to diminish the value of the big guys up front, but it’s to suggest that seeing a player who’s capable of making a greater impact in the game is more appealing.
And that brings us to Irish freshman linebacker Jaylen Sneed, the top-ranked recruit in Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class.
Most believed that Sneed would’ve already made his season and career debut at Notre Dame. But with a deep well of talented and veteran linebackers ahead of him, Sneed has been able to study and bide his time, so far.
Expect that to change with consecutive games against Navy (3-5) and Boston College (2-6) up next.
The No. 1 recruit from his home state of South Carolina, the No. 3 linebacker in the country and the No. 34 player overall, per the On3.com consensus rankings, Sneed was the lone five-star Irish recruit in the 2022 class.
Sneed came to Notre Dame with expectations and projections to follow in the footsteps of another Notre Dame Jaylon, Jaylon Smith, who was rated as the No. 1 linebacker in the class of 2013.
With comparisons like that, it’s impossible not to get overly excited about seeing Sneed finally make his Notre Dame debut, presumably sometime before the end of this season.
