Notre Dame Football: Defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola will return to the Irish in 2022

On Friday, Notre Dame Fighting Irish defensive tackle Jayson Ademilola made it a FUN FRIYAY with his announcement that he will return to South Bend for the 2022 season.

Jayson has been making contributions to the Notre Dame defensive line since his freshman year in 2018, and really turned it on during his senior year in 2021 with 50 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, and 4 sacks.

Ademilola will be one of the most experienced players on the roster in 2022 with 44 games played over the last 4 years. This 5th year of eligibility allowed is because of the “COVID rule” that grants players that played in 2020 an extra year of eligibility.

It was widely considered just a month ago that Jayson would likely be heading to the NFL Draft while his twin brother Justin would be returning to Notre Dame. Regardless of many other reasons why Jayson decided to give one more year to Our Lady’s university, as a brother of twins I can tell you that there is a supernatural bond between twins that is hard to understand and easy to accept.

While Jayson won’t be able to touch Kurt Himish’s record of 61 games played at Notre Dame, he still has a chance to have played in 57 or 58 games throughout his career — which is just incredible.

Notre Dame loses a lot next year with the departures of Kurt Hinish and Myron Tagovailola-Amosa, but guys like Justin and Jayson Ademilola are absolutely key returning starters for next season and extremely important for the team’s success in 2022. If Isaiah Foskey decides to also wait one more year before entering the NFL Draft, the defensive line is really cooking with gas.