Pair Of Notre Dame LB Commits Named Butkus Award Finalists

Notre Dame has dominated the high school and college Butkus Awards, and the 2022 class could continue that trend. Two Notre Dame linebacker commits - Joshua Burnham and Jaylen Sneed - were named among six finalists for the 2021 Butkus Award, which goes to the top high school linebacker in the country.

The high school Butkus Award has been handed out 13 times and Notre Dame has had three of its prospects earn that award. Manti Te'o was the first ever winner of the Butkus Award at the prep level, winning it back in 2008. Jaylon Smith won the award in 2012 and current freshman Prince Kollie won the award in 2020.

Burnham and Sneed are both Top 100 recruits, and both spent their senior seasons playing on both sides of the ball.

Burnham has racked up 68 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and 3 pass breakups as a linebacker. On offense, Burnham has rushed for 1,487 yards and 28 touchdowns while also passing for 955 yards and 14 more touchdowns while throwing just 2 interceptions.

Sneed finished his senior season (9 games) with 101 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 8 quarterback hits, 2 blocked punts and 2 interceptions. He also rushed for 760 yards and 11 touchdowns as a quarterback. Sneed finished his prep career with 245 tackles, 10 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 5 interceptions and 3 blocked punts.

The four other nominees are Georgia commit Jalon Walker, Ohio State commit CJ Hicks, Alabama commit Shawn Murphy and uncommitted linebacker Harold Perkins.

Fellow 2022 Notre Dame commits Nolan Ziegler and Niuafe Tuihalamaka were also nominated for the award.

Notre Dame has also had three players win the college version in the last decade, the only program to accomplish that. Te'o won the award in 2012, Smith won it in 2015 and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah won it last season.

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Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board

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