Tag: Marist Liufau

Notre Dame football senior linebacker will skip Sun Bowl to prep for NFL

The Irish won’t see a fan favorite linebacker suit up again

It has become commonplace in college football for players to opt out of the bowl game and prepare for the NFL. Notre Dame is no different.

The Irish saw their third-leading linebacker tackler, [autotag]Marist Liufau[/autotag] decided that it is in his best interest to opt out of the Sun Bowl and prepare for the [autotag]NFL draft[/autotag].

I have been a big fan of the Hawaii native’s game, he plays like his hair is on fire, going 100% every single play. Sometimes it’s not the best, but you can’t teach the intensity that Liufau brings every single snap. Over the course of his Notre Dame playing career, he racked up 117 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble and 3 recovered.

As much as we hate not being able to see Liufau in the Blue and Gold one more time, we wish him the best at the next level.

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Notre Dame linebacker declares for NFL draft

All the best in the NFL!

Notre Dame will be down a linebacker in the Sun Bowl (Dec. 29) as Marist Liufau has declared for the NFL draft and chosen to opt out of the game.

Liufau played in all 12 games this season, recorded three sacks, and totaled 44 tackles.  He had a career high 51 tackles a season ago.

Liufau certainly has a high motor and improved this past season but can at times be his own worst enemy when trying to do to much.  That said, he’s an impressive athlete and a talented player that Notre Dame will have to replace for the Sun Bowl and for 2024.

The good news is the linebacker recruiting has been lights out in recent years.

Notre Dame statistical leaders through 11 games

Hopefully, these players can end the regular season on a high note.

Notre Dame has one game left in the regular season against Stanford. Good luck finding a way to watch it on the Pac-12 Network, but that’s a topic for another day. Right now, let’s focus on who is most likely to help the Irish beat the Cardinal.

Statistically, here’s who is likely to factor in whether the Irish can get revenge for last year’s defeat in South Bend:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through 10 games

Here’s who to look for against Wake Forest.

Notre Dame has two games left to improve the quality of the bowl it will play in. That might not mean much given that the New Year’s Six bowls are out of play, but it still is something to shoot for. The first of these contests comes against Wake Forest.

Here are the players statistically leading the Irish going into their home finale, one of which knows the Demon Deacons very well:

The potential cheap shot of Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson has been found

Was this the hit TreVeyon Henderson referred to as a ‘cheap shot?’

If you listened to [autotag]Ohio State football[/autotag] running back [autotag]TreVeyon Henderson[/autotag]’s interview following this weekend’s win over Wisconsin, he mentioned he took a cheap shot against Notre Dame.

Thankfully, internet sleuths went back and may have found the play Henderson was referring to. The clip was found by [autotag]Josh Poloha[/autotag] of Eleven Warriors, and he believes it was this hit that the Buckeye took against Irish linebacker [autotag]Marist Liufau[/autotag].

It’s almost impossible to know if this was really the hit that Henderson mentions, but it is a viscous one nonetheless. You be the judge, take a look at the video shared on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

Do you think this was the hit? Or was it another one?

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X.

Notre Dame statistical leaders through nine games

Here’s who to watch for in the next game.

Notre Dame is riding high after winning its past couple of games. Now, it will visit a Clemson team that looks nothing like it did the past few years. The Irish have to feel pretty good about their chances. Wouldn’t you?

Here are the statistical leaders for the Irish heading into November:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through eight games

In case you forgot after the week off.

Notre Dame has had an extra week to enjoy the blow it dealt to USC’s season. Now, it’s back to business with Pittsburgh coming to South Bend. With the gauntlet portion of the schedule behind the Irish, this hopefully will be the easiest game they’ve had to look forward to in a month.

For those who need refreshing after the week off, here are the Irish’s major statistical leaders:

Notre Dame statistical leaders through seven games

Having lost two of its past three, Notre Dame officially has little left to play for. Before it can enjoy its first of two bye weeks, it must first deal with yet another ranked undefeated in USC. This could get worse before it gets better. Alas, the …

Having lost two of its past three, Notre Dame officially has little left to play for. Before it can enjoy its first of two bye weeks, it must first deal with yet another ranked undefeated in USC. This could get worse before it gets better. Alas, the Irish must carry on because the schedule dictates such.

Here’s who leads the major statistical categories for the Irish:

Social media reacts to face mask penalty leading to Louisville TD

Was this the right call?

Notre Dame has not looked good against Louisville, and the penalties certainly haven’t helped. One face-mask penalty wiped out a nice reception for [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]. However, Evans was able to get it back a few plays later, and it set up a 54-yard field goal for [autotag]Spencer Shrader[/autotag], tying his own program record.

But a late face-mask penalty by Marist Liufau on third down in a close game proved even more costly. With the Cardinals given new life, they continued to march down the field, and Jawhar Jordan ran 24 yards for a touchdown to put the Cardinals up, 24-13. Jordan also ran for a 45-yard score earlier in the second half.

Whether Liufau should have been whistled for the face mask is debatable, but what’s not is that it took the wind out of the Irish’s defense. Most Irish fans disagreed with the penalty as you’ll see from the following tweets:

How social media reacted to Notre Dame-Duke: Blue Devils side

Heartbreaking night in Durham.

It looked like Duke was going to pull off the upset of Notre Dame in the final minute. But one long [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag] first-down run and one [autotag]Audric Estime[/autotag] touchdown run later, the Blue Devils found themselves behind, 21-14.

Already faced with a long shot of scoring a touchdown after starting their final possession deep in their own territory, the Blue Devils’ chances were snuffed out. Riley Leonard was strip-sacked by [autotag]Howard Cross[/autotag], and [autotag]Marist Liufau[/autotag] recovered the fumble. The raucous crowd that had been in Durham all day was silenced.

More concerning was that Leonard injured his leg on the strip-sack and came off the field without putting any weight on the leg. Hartman even left his ABC postgame interview to check on him. The injury undoubtedly was one of many things on Blue Devils fans’ minds as they wondered what could have been.

Here are some of the reactions to the game by Blue Devils fans on social media: