Notre Dame Roster Review | Linebacker
It’s a new era at linebacker for Notre Dame with JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau moving on to the next level. They already ushered in a different era when the Irish played with two linebackers the majority of the time with both of them being every down fixtures.
2024 is the start of the next phase with sixth-year senior Jack Kiser there to help with the transition to a much younger group. What they lack in experience, they make up for in raw talent.
Total snaps returning
The Irish are bringing back 694 snaps from last year’s squad, with just about all of those coming from Kiser (354) and Jaylen Sneed (231). 90 of those snaps from Sneed were with him lined up on the ball as a pass rusher.
Drayk Bowen had the next highest snap count of any of the linebackers with 74.
Notable returning production
Kiser was highly productive when he was on the field finishing third on the team in tackles and tying Bertrand for the team lead in solo tackles. He had 4.5 total havoc plays (forced fumbles, interceptions, pass breakups, and tackles for loss).
Sneed emerged as a starter in Notre Dame’s sub-package as the season progressed and ended up with four havoc plays. The two biggest were a pass breakup on a red zone stop against Ohio State and a sack against USC.
He finished 12 pressures and his 13.2% pass rush win rate was fourth on the team. He’s only scratching the surface with that part of his game.
Additions
Notre Dame signed three linebackers in the 2024 recruiting class. Bodie Kahoun and Teddy Rezac won’t arrive on campus until June and neither is likely to play this fall.
Kyngstonn Villiamu-Asa is in South Bend right now and he’s one of the best linebacker prospects the Irish have signed in years. He also might be the most college-ready.
Not only did he play against some of the toughest competition in the country in high school, he’s physically mature and is extremely intelligent. KVA is the rare freshman who not only has a shot to crack the two-deep, but he may mess around and get himself in the mix to start.
Spring competition
Kiser has established himself already. The question will be where they want to play him (Mike or Will) and if he can be the type of player who never leaves the field.
Based on his playing time last year, Sneed would seem like the obvious favorite to start at Will. But when he played in the base defense, he didn’t look comfortable against the inside run game and was often overaggressive as a tackler. He led the team in missed tackle percentage last season.
Whether or not he can become an every down player or if he’s going to stick to his role on 3rd down is something he’ll need to answer during spring practice.
Bowen has generated positive buzz since he enrolled early last year and might have played more if not for an injury early in the season. Everyone has high expectations for him and that could begin to materialize this spring. Look for him to compete to start at Mike.
Jaiden Ausberry and Preston Zinter both redshirted last season. Ausberry was the one who flashed the most last spring and August. The football finds him and seeing where he is at with his physical development will be worth monitoring this spring. We saw far less from Zinter in terms of reps, but his work on the scout team generated praise often. He also has some pass rush ability and could find himself competing at the “Money” position that Liufau played on 3rd down.
KVA also has a shot to play there as well. He showed he can rush off the edge at St. John Bosco. Him, Zinter, and Sneed are the primary candidates to play that role, but the Irish used two linebackers as pass rushers in the second half of last season. This might be three players competing for two spots if the defensive staff doesn’t like what they are seeing from the Vyper position.
Four of the six in the mix at linebacker are in year one or two in college. Four of the six overall were also ranked in the top-15 in the composite rankings for linebackers in their respective recruiting classes (Sneed and KVA were in the top-five). We’ll see if the talent can make up for the lack of experience.
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