Film Don't Lie | LB Play vs BYU
Notre Dame’s staff has as close to a “dream team” of linebacker coaches that any program has in college football.
They have an experienced NFL linebacker coach as defensive coordinator, a former Butkus Award winner as a graduate assistant, and the head coach is the previous defensive coordinator who coached linebackers in college for over a decade. There are very few programs in college football who can match that level of experience coaching the position.
That’s why it’s all the more puzzling why Notre Dame’s linebackers haven’t played close to expectations this season. Through five games, linebackers have contributed only 7.5 total Havoc plays.
The linebackers totalled 39.5 Havoc plays as a group in 2021 and 46 in 2020. If this pace continues, it’d be a drastic drop in production. It would be less than Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah produced on his own in a single season.
It’s not just a lack of playmaking either. Notre Dame’s run defense has not been very good. They’re currently 83rd in yards per carry against and 112th in EPA (expected points added) per rush. That’s not all on the linebackers, but they take some of the blame for that.
Is it the personnel? Maybe, but there are things I’ve seen from all of the players who are playing now that suggest that they are capable of being much better.
Jack Kiser triggering and shooting the gap to make a tackle for loss on this play is a perfect example of that. It’s the kind of play we saw Drew White make numerous times at Notre Dame. Kiser doesn’t wait for the guard to come to him. He sees it and goes.
It’s the same kind of thing here with Marist Liufau. He’s downhill, shooting through the A gap, and disrupting this play.
JD Bertrand has to take on a block here, but he’s not waiting for it. He strikes the guard and sheds the block quickly to make a tackle.
That’s what everyone wants to see from the linebacker position. There’s just not nearly enough of it.
There’s a lot more that looks like this. Here’s a split zone run for BYU where they are running zone blocking one way and bringing the tight end to block the backside end.
I think a lot of people watched this play and wondered what the heck Liufau was doing here. Why isn’t he flowing with the zone? He’s unblocked, so why isn’t he filling to make this tackle? He should be the one who makes this play.
It’s pretty clear he is playing the potential keep from the quarterback. Maybe he sees the tight end pulling and he’s thinking about the tight end coming around and leading for the quarterback. That’s something Notre Dame did quite a bit with Tyler Buchner (though I don’t recall seeing it from BYU).
The Vyper on this play, Isaiah Foskey, sees zone the opposite way and he’s thinking read by the quarterback too, which is why he’s not crashing down on this block harder.
Only Liufau and the staff knows what’s going on here and whether or not they are emphasizing he needs to be ready for the quarterback to keep it, but he doesn’t fill for a reason. He’s also not helped by Jayson Ademilola, the defensive tackle to his side, who is late off the ball here and getting washed down by the double team.
This is also split zone later in the game and Bertrand is the inside linebacker here. He doesn’t play the quarterback so maybe this was an adjustment they saw that was corrected from earlier or Liufau was just in the wrong on that previous play.
Bertrand plays this right, but he hits the back at three yards and this ends up as a six yard gain. No one wants to see that much after contact when a linebacker is unblocked.
It has to be said that the defensive tackles are again getting moved too far off the ball here. The inside linebackers weren’t getting much help at all from them and it’s a reality that a linebacker’s job is much easier when the defensive line in front of him is being disruptive. They weren’t here.
And this final play is another example of how the front gives zero help to the linebackers. It’s split zone again and Gabriel Rubio is late off the ball. He gets reach blocked way too easily and ends up on the ground and takes out Bertrand.
Bertrand needs to react to this wide zone run faster too and maybe he doesn’t get caught up in this if that happens, but again, a better job from the defensive tackle in front of him gives him a better shot to make this play.
What’s DJ Brown doing here running with the tight end not playing the run? He could have been there to make a tackle if he stayed home, but he’s clearly assigned to cover this tight end in man coverage and this is what BYU does.
They run play-action off of wide zone and have gashed defenses with it over the last few years.
Brown sees the tight end release and it’s just instincts taking over because he probably saw a lot of looks similar to this on film where this was play-action. I think it’s more of a smart wrinkle from BYU to have that tight end run a route to mess with the safety than it is a big screw up from Brown.
The linebackers need to be better for Notre Dame against the run. They should be better. The defensive tackles not named Howard Cross should be too and they weren’t great in this game.
There are glimmers of hope with the players who are playing right now. Those flashes have to turn into consistent play, though, or else we’ll continue to see a lack of playmaking from the linebacker position.
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