We are breaking down the Notre Dame prospects hoping to hear their names called in the upcoming NFL Draft being held in Detroit from April 25th through the 27th. Today, we look at an athletic linebacker that dealt with an up and down career for the Irish.

SPECS

Name: Marist Liufau
Hometown: Kalihi, Hawaii
Position: LB
Height: 6-2 (per NFL Combine)
Weight: 234 (per NFL Combine)
40: 4.64 (t-10th out of 15 LB)
10-Yard Split: 1.66 (t-5th out of 15 LB)

STRENGTHS:

Aggressive downhill attacker with strong hands. Liufau has a long frame which is ideal in pass coverage. Adept in zone coverage and solid in man coverage. Really good short area burst and first step athleticism. Good straight line speed. A player with a very high motor who can chase down the ball and make very good second efforts after a play breaks down.

WEAKNESSES:

Very inconsistent as a blitzer. Liufau was swallowed up too many times and stood up when coming aggressively toward the line of scrimmage. Not an overly physical tackler and relies more on a wrap up and throw style of stopping the ball carrier. Needs to work on better instincts finding the ball and show more patience while not taking himself out of the play.

OVERVIEW:

Liufau came on strong as a redshirt freshman late in 2020 with a dynamic performance against North Carolina noted. However, he’d sit out 2021 with injury and despite back-to-back healthy seasons for 2022-23 this was a career that felt really short and never delivered on its initial promise.

With 2+ years of starting, Liufau totaled  117 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and 1 interception. With the occasional highlight play it just wasn’t a ton of overall production compared to his snap count. Still, the native Hawaiian possesses enough of an ideal frame and overall athletic skill to stick around in the NFL for a while.

PREDICTION:

6th Round, 219th Overall to the Green Bay Packers

The whispers around Liufau in South Bend have always been that he’s more highly coveted in the NFL relative to his performance at Notre Dame. A lot of positional rankings have Liufu comfortably placed in the 5th round and pushing towards a top 150 overall selection.

I’m not sure what the NFL ultimately thinks about his future–is he an inside linebacker or someone who can develop as more of an outside linebacker? He’s shown good traits in each in college but still has sufficient weaknesses in each that make it a tough call.

Ultimately, I think Liufau slides a tiny bit and comes off the board with the 2nd to last pick in the 6th round to the Packers.