SOUTH BEND — Early work for Jaylen Sneed before each Notre Dame football practice includes an on-field tutorial with defensive line guru Charlie Partridge.
A fifth-year senior for the fifth-ranked Irish, Sneed remains a key part of the nation’s deepest linebacking unit. But he’s also proven to be a valuable weapon with his hand in the dirt on third down in pass-rushing situations.
“Because I'm a linebacker and he's a D-line coach, that's really the only time I get with him,” Sneed said recently. “We've just been working on my angle, my hands and the mentals of pass rush.”
Sneed would go through pregame drills with Al Washington’s defensive line in previous seasons, and that specialized role netted the man known as “Nuke” 40 total pressures (including eight sacks) over the past three seasons.
Partridge, hired in January, offers Sneed another level of pass-rushing detail, one that helped the Indianapolis Colts the past two seasons and before that the Pittsburgh Panthers for seven.
“Because I'm a linebacker, I don't really know what to look for all the time or what's happening on the line,” Sneed said. “(Partridge) has just been helping slow it down for me and figure out what I'm doing.”
Sneed’s pass-rush grade via Pro Football Focus has improved in each of his previous seasons with the Irish. His pressure rate the past three seasons is 15.9% on 252 combined pass rush opportunities.
Second-year defensive coordinator Chris Ash hopes to see Sneed’s efficiency spike even further this fall.
“He's a guy that's been around here and played a lot of football,” Ash said early in fall camp. “And he played a lot of situational football for us. He really finished the season on a high note last year as a designated pass rusher for us in certain situations.”
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A proven USC killer, Sneed won’t have another chance to face the Trojans, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make life miserable for the likes of Bear Bachmeier (BYU) and Darian Mensah (Miami).
“He really improved in the second half of the season at linebacker,” Ash said. “He's had a great offseason. Right now, he appears to be in a great place mentally. … He’s competing his a— off to help the team.”
Back down to 227 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame, Sneed and speed remain synonymous off the edge.
“I'm definitely one of the linebackers that blitzes the most,” he said. “Coach Ash is just trying all different types of ways to get his linebackers involved. We have four of us. It's hard to rotate, so he's just trying different ways to get all of us on the field at once and find us spots.”
The more time Sneed spends with Partridge before practice, the more dangerous he should be this season.
“I want to get better at my pass coverage, pass drops, get a couple of interceptions, ball disruptions,” Sneed said. “I just want to take the ball away this year and really show I can do that.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Where Jaylen Sneed hopes to make the biggest impact for Notre Dame