Notre Dame Linebacker Marist Liufau Suffers Significant Lower Leg Injury
Marist Liufau’s spring season and fall camp offered plentiful evidence his late 2020 surge had staying power.
The junior linebacker’s increased comfort in the Notre Dame defense showed up this month in the form of disruptive run defense and havoc as a blitzer. Liufau was consistently around the ball in both fall camp practices that were fully open to the media. He displayed hard-to-miss decisiveness and confidence.
And as a result, he had established himself as the likely starter at Will linebacker this year.
“Marist would tell you he played outside the lines a lot and that was one of the things he had to get better at,” head coach Brian Kelly said earlier this month. “He’s stronger. You see what he looks like. All those other things are coming together.
“He’s a versatile player. He can pass rush off the edge. He can cover guys. He can play inside. He can do a lot of things for us.”
Notre Dame will have to wait to unleash this version of Liufau in games, though. Perhaps for a while.
Liufau suffered a lower leg injury in Wednesday’s practice, a source confirmed to BlueandGold.com. He is expected to miss significant time, if not the entire season.
Liufau’s absence is a meaningful loss for Notre Dame’s defense. The Irish are without one of their rising defensive playmakers. But the linebacker room has the depth to replace him with another capable option. Kelly and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman had identified five players who make up the primary linebacker rotation: Graduate student Drew White, senior Bo Bauer, senior Shayne Simon, junior JD Bertrand and Liufau.
White is locked into the starting Mike linebacker job, with Bauer as his backup. Simon and Bertrand have played both linebacker spots. Bertrand played the second-team snaps at Will linebacker in the most recent open practice. He has put forth a productive fall camp himself.
After playing fewer than 40 defensive snaps last year, Bertrand could be in line for a significant bump in playing time if called on to help replace Liufau. Most of his 2020 playing time came on special teams.
Simon, another option, split time with Liufau at Will linebacker in 2020. He made 14 tackles (1.0 for loss) and broke up four passes in 11 games, with eight starts.
Liufau totaled 22 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks in 10 games last year. He started three times. His best game came in a Nov. 27 win at North Carolina, when he totaled five tackles and 0.5 sacks off the bench. His blitzing also caused problems for the North Carolina offense even when he didn’t make a tackle or sack.
A native of Hawaii, the 6-2, 229-pound Liufau was a three-star recruit in Notre Dame’s 2019 class.
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