One of the more interesting position battles entering the season for Notre Dame still appears to be on-going as both Shayne Simon and Marist Liufau were listed atop the Buck linebacker position in the weekly depth chart.
Both of them beating out senior Jordan Genmark Heath seems to have led to his exit from the Notre Dame football program while junior Jack Lamb and sophomore Jack Kiser were both beaten out for the spot.
Brian Kelly spoke about Simon and Liufau early in the week, praising the camps that both have had.
“Both of them are prepared and ready to play,” Kelly said. “Clark Lea will make the decision as to who runs out there with the starting group, but both of them have had great camps and both of them are prepared and ready to play a lot of football for us.”
There isn’t a bunch of experience at the Buck linebacker position for Notre Dame which means they’ll need to find some instant success there again like they did last year with Asmar Bilal.
Liufau played in just four games last season but they were perhaps the four biggest games Notre Dame had as he faced off against Georgia, Virginia, USC and Michigan. His size isn’t the greatest but his athleticism makes up for some of that.
Simon enters the year coming off a knee injury he suffered against Navy. His high-point of last year came when he recorded 1.5 tackles for loss in a blowout victory over Bowling Green.
The Buck linebacker position was a big question entering the 2019 season before Bilal took over and ran with it all the way towards the top of the team leaderboard for tackles a season ago.
Can lighting strike twice and Liufau or Simon go from being concerns to strengths?
Step one in finding the answer to that question out