Jay Hayes On Right Path To A Strong 'End Game' At Notre Dame
Sophomore defensive tackle Jay Hayes made a splash at Notre Dame last September. Unfortunately, it came from a massive belly flop into uncharted waters.
On Sept. 23, three days before the home game against UMass, Hayes sent out two tweets that expressed his dissatisfaction with the Notre Dame coaching staff, and ostensibly his impending transfer to another school.
Read the first: “Gotta get this natty and I’m out.” (The “natty” referred to the national title aspiration in 2015.)
He followed with a second: “When a coach stops coaching you … that’s when you jus (sic) gotta move on.”
He later deleted the posts from his account — but not before the Fighting Irish coaching staff saw them air publicly and create a bit of a brouhaha. It resulted in Hayes’ suspension from being with the team at the next game.
"There has to be responsibility as it relates to social media, and you have to think before you hit send," head coach Brian Kelly said the day after the tweets appeared. "What you have to do is you have to knock on my door instead of hitting the send button, and these are good lessons to be learned. ... If he has a job at Google and he talks about his boss that way, you're probably not going to have a job the next day.
"You don't say, ‘Hey, I'm going to take Twitter away from you.' You just tell him, ‘Look, you need to make a better decision next time or it's going to impact you when you leave here at Notre Dame.’ ”
Hayes appears to be in it indeed for the long haul at Notre Dame despite the disappointment of redshirting as a sophomore to preserve a fifth season of eligibility in 2018. The plan was to have that happen in his freshman year in 2014, but injuries ravaged the defensive line so much, he was forced into action in the final games far before his time.
This spring, listed at 6-3, 285 pounds, Hayes is making another surprising transition. Originally considered Sheldon Day’s heir at three-technique, or maybe a strong side end to groom behind senior Isaac Rochell, Hayes instead is seriously battling to be a co-starter at weak side end with classmate Andrew Trumbetti.
Whereas Trumbetti is more of a quick-twitch player off the edge with his 255-pound frame, Hayes provides more power. During last Saturday’s open practice, Hayes took most of the reps at the position and did commendable work collapsing the back side on zone plays run away from him, including making a couple of plays in the backfield. Trumbetti undoubtedly will still have a major role after taking the fourth most snaps along the line last year (368, or about 30 per game), but Hayes is expected to enhance the overall depth along the line with his growth.
However, the maturity had to first take place within for Hayes, and he credits the Notre Dame coaching staff, including strength and conditioning coach Paul Longo, for helping set him right.
“I think we all go through that phase, it’s the freshman or sophomore blues,” said Hayes of his unfiltered expression last year. “At one point you can think you have it all figured out. … They really emphasize the next step of being a man. That’s something I’ve really learned about, I’ve really reevaluated myself, the things that I do.
“What I take away from that, and I tell all the younger guys too, ‘Bad times make you much better. Bad times strengthen you.’ That stuff hurts even thinking about it. But now I’m just way past it. That’s something that has really stuck with me to this day.”
After a heart-to-heart with Kelly, with the Irish head coach also adding how much the Notre Dame community still needed him and how he needed to handle unfinished business, Hayes said his frustration turned to determination.
“Patience is something I’ve always struggled with as a kid,” he said. “My mom was always telling me, ‘Be patient, be patient. Patience is a virtue.’ I was like, ‘Whatever.’ I really learned about that in college. It takes time. Control what I can control. Once I got that through my head, I did everything I could to transform, to enhance my game in all aspects.”
Hayes also admitted it was he who originally broached the topic about redshirting last season.
“I discussed it with them,” Hayes said. “It wasn’t them bringing it on me saying, ‘Hey, we think you should redshirt.’ It was my idea because I wanted more playing time then … I think every player believes he can play. I knew for certain I could have been out there playing and be a productive player. At the same time, coaches have their plans and you have to control what you can control.
“It wasn’t really hard accepting it, because now I see it as a time that added to my game, me going back to the gym, going back to the laboratory and getting better.”
Now he is finding himself mentoring another Hayes, early freshman entrant and five-star recruit Daelin Hayes, who plays the same position and also has had to learn about patience while playing in only about seven high school football games the past three seasons while dealing with myriad issues, including shoulder surgeries from which he is recovering.
“I’m trying to give him the ins and outs of a Notre Dame football player, how you should conduct yourself,” the junior Hayes said. “I’m honest with him. I don’t want to see him make the mistakes I’ve made, because he’s a real talented guy.”
The Brooklyn Poly Prep graduate also says homesickness is not an issue, mainly because he doesn’t know where he would be in life today without having had the blessing to be a student-athlete at Notre Dame.
“I love my teammates and I know they love me,” said Hayes, one of the more gregarious, affable and “big” personalities on the team, comparable to former nose guard Louis Nix III (2010-13). “Just the resources, the facilities, the atmosphere. I’m from Brooklyn, and it’s hard to go to a gym when you really want to go to a gym. It’s hard to go run when you sometimes want to run down the street to go to the park.
“I can come here to work out any time I want. I can come here to watch film any time I want. I can really enhance my game any time I want without any distractions. People are on the same page as me. I just prefer being out here really focusing more on my craft and building myself as an individual and as a football player.
“It fits me where at a point people were wondering about me and my family was wondering about me if I was okay. It’s just peace and quiet, and able to reevaluate how you work and how you treat others. There’s just more peace in my life. That’s what I really like about the place.
“It’s a great opportunity because I’m playing with the best of the best. I’m seeing guys that are going to the NFL. Coach Kelly has turned the program around tremendously and you’re around first-class guys. Guys like Drue Tranquill, Shawn Crawford, a pro like Jaylon Smith … who are there for you regardless.”
Adjusting to weak side end is the fun part after last season.
“You just have more freedom, and that’s the thing I like about it," Hayes said of his new role. "There’s not really an adjustment when you’re leaving double teams and combos.
“It’s more cover stuff I have to worry about, though. That’s the only adjustment I’ve really seen. Right now I have no problem with that. I can drop back, reroute the No. 2 [receiver], chase down a running back at my size. It’s not a major adjustment where I’m overwhelmed. My goal is to learn the entire playbook schematically and conceptually.”
In many ways, he’s already learned about Notre Dame’s playbook for life.