Tag: shayne simon

Know your foe Pittsburgh: With Panthers could give Notre Dame problems

More than a few familiar faces the Irish will line up against on Saturday

There is going to be a somewhat familiar feel for a few [autotag]Pittsburgh[/autotag] players as they are set to face off against [autotag]Notre Dame football[/autotag] this weekend.

Why you ask? Well, a few of them were once members of the Irish football team, the most recognizable is quarterback, err tight end [autotag]Phil Jurkovec[/autotag], although we most likely won’t see him this weekend except for maybe special teams after he lost the starting job earlier this season. So, we won’t touch on him here anymore.

However, there are others on the Panther team that will be easily recognized by Irish fans. Let’s take a look at which Pittsburgh players could give Notre Dame problems this Saturday afternoon.

Pittsburgh statistical leaders through seven games

You might recognize a couple of these names.

Notre Dame fans will see a couple of familiar faces when their team battles Pittsburgh. That’s because the Panthers’ top quarterback and running back both once donned the blue and gold. In fact, a lot of the Panthers’ best players are transfers, either because they didn’t get the opportunities they sought at other programs or they wanted to use up college eligibility elsewhere. Either way, many of these Panthers didn’t start as Panthers.

Is that part of the reason the Panthers’ offense isn’t as strong as their defense? Perhaps, but either way, most of this season has not gone well for the Steel City program. The fact that they handled Louisville and the Irish didn’t is not a good look for [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] and his staff. Alas, nothing can be done to change that now.

Assuming the Panthers can make this a game, here are the players most likely to do that:

Notre Dame transfer portal tracker (2022)

An ongoing list of those departing and those entering…

The transfer portal is sweeping college football and changing the landscape of the entire sport like few things have before.  Although Notre Dame hasn’t been hit with a major loss by any means this season, there is still plenty of an impact that can be felt as nine different players have entered the portal since the start of the football season.

We assume it’s only a matter of time before the Irish land a few commitments in it but as of now that is not yet the case.

Here are those nine and the latest on their future destinations:

Injured Notre Dame linebacker Marist Liufau out for season

Tough loss for the Irish.

If Notre Dame is going to uphold its defensive reputation, it will have to do so without one of its returning linebackers. Last week, junior Marist Liufau was dealt a major injury in practice. It turned out to be a broken ankle, and he ended up needing surgery, which took place Monday morning. However, Brian Kelly said during a news conference later in the day that Liufau will miss the entire season.

Liufau was expected to start at Will linebacker this season. With that possibility out the window, the depth chart for the Irish’s season opener against Florida State lists junior JD Bertand as the new starter. Backing up Bertrand is senior Shayne Simon.

After seeing limited action as a freshman in 2019, Liufau played 10 games in 2020 while recording 22 tackles, six apiece coming in the ACC Championship Game and the Rose Bowl.

Bertrand played in seven games in 2020 and recorded seven tackles, while Simon had 14 tackles while starting eight of 11 games.

Breaking: Notre Dame loses significant defender for undisclosed time

No good news

Reports have surfaced this morning that the Irish have lost one of their linebackers in Marist Liufau. Apparently the presumed starter suffered a major injury to his lower body in practice yesterday and the reports aren’t very encouraging. The injury has yet to be confirmed but Liufau will be out for a good amount of time.

It’s a big loss for Marcus Freeman’s defense, as Liufau has just started to scratch the surface of how good he could be. It can’t be stressed enough that defenses depth at linebacker will now be tested.

It seems like either Shayne Simon or JD Bertrand will move into the starting spot, and there isn’t much time at all left in camp. Will someone else step up? Keep an eye out here on Fighting Irish Wire for more information about this developing story.

Notre Dame to be without two defensive players vs. Florida State

Notre Dame’s defense will be down a couple of players when they take on Florida State this Saturday night.

What feels like a lifetime ago at this point, Notre Dame improved to 2-0 on the season with a dominating 52-0 win over South Florida way back on September 19.

That day it was linebacker Jack Kiser, getting informed the morning of the game that he’d be starting, that walked away with Brian Kelly’s game ball honors.

Unfortunately Notre Dame will be without Kiser when Florida State comes to town Saturday night, nor will stellar defensive tackle Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa.

Kiser was an emergency starter for Notre Dame in that South Florida game and played great, recording eight tackles, two of which for loss.  Shayne Simon and Marist Liufau are set to return to their regular roles atop the depth chart at Buck linebacker.

Tagovailoa-Amosa being out is a hit to the first string however as he was off to a solid start with five tackles through the first two games, including two for a loss.

Expect to see more of Jayson Ademilola and Howard Cross, III in Tagovailoa-Amosa’s absence.

Notre Dame Dominates USF: 5 Takeaways

Notre Dame dominated South Florida 52-0 on Saturday. Here are five quick takeaways from the blowout victory that moved the Irish to 2-0.

Perhaps it was last week’s slow start against Duke and maybe some of it had to do with what happened against South Florida back in 2011 but it didn’t feel like there was a ton of confidence in the ability of the Irish to entirely dominate going into Saturday’s game.

Then kickoff happened and Notre Dame dominated in every part of the game for the next 60 minutes in their — obliteration of South Florida that puts the Irish at 2-0 for the third straight season.

It wasn’t the most compelling of games as the only thing all that interesting in the final two frames was if Notre Dame could keep the shutout in tact.

With that said here are five takeaways from the victory.

Inside em, outside em…through them, over them, whatever you wanted to do to them….

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Irish gameday injury update: Hamilon, Bracy and other’s status for USF

Find out which Notre Dame players won’t be suiting up this afternoon against South Florida.

Notre Dame has announced with players who were on the depth chart this week that will no suit up against South Florida this afternoon.

The biggest player not putting on the Blue and Gold this afternoon is safety Kyle Hamilton. He injured his ankle during last weeks win against Duke, Brian Kelly making the safe choice to sit his one of this star players. The defense didn’t look bad after Hamilton was injured, so him not playing shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

Other notables include cornerback TaRiq Bracy, who had four tackles last week, and linebacker Marist Liufau. The depth at cornerback and linebacker was probably another reason Kelly played it safe with Bracy and Liufau. Also running back Jahmir Smith is out, hopefully electric freshman Chris Tyree is the benefactor.

Notre Dame/Duke: Lenzy out, Buck LB latest

We’re quickly approaching kickoff of the 2020 season for Notre Dame and we’ve got quite the story already developing. According to those in the press box, Braden Lenzy did not participate in pregame warmups. Instead it was freshman Xavier Watts …

We’re quickly approaching kickoff of the 2020 season for Notre Dame and we’ve got quite the story already developing.

According to those in the press box, Braden Lenzy did not participate in pregame warmups. Instead it was freshman Xavier Watts getting reps with the second team offense, where Lenzy was listed on the depth chart earlier in the week.

No word on Lenzy’s reason for not being dressed but we’ll work to find out more.

Also worth noting is Marist Liufau getting the first team reps. He was listed alongside Shayne Simon atop the depth chart earlier this week.

Stay tuned to FIW for all the latest in regards to Notre Dame and Duke as we’ll have you covered all afternoon and season long.

Notre Dame football: What the Buck?

2020 will be interesting for Notre Dame at the Buck linebacker position. Will someone step up and take the majority of snaps?

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