Notre Dame football has an answer it needs to turn to in order to recreate the impact lost by star LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
How does Notre Dame recreate the impact lost with the injury to Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa?
Notre Dame football put together a historically dominant performance against Syracuse this past weekend, defeating the Orange by a 70-7 margin on Senior Day.
Whenever you have these types of lopsided games, the hope is to come out as healthy as possible. Unfortunately for head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish, they lost one of their best defenders during the contest.
Star sophomore linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa exited the football game with an apparent knee injury, which left many speculating the severity of the situation. It was announced on Sunday by Notre Dame that the 6-3, 230-pound defender would be out for the rest of the season. This situation is a coach’s worst nightmare: losing a vital piece to a potential championship run in a game decided by the middle of the first quarter.
With only one regular season game remaining and the College Football Playoff on the horizon, Notre Dame is now tasked with trying to replace Viliamu-Asa, or at least recreate his impact on the field. It won’t be easy, but the Irish staff does have some interesting options. There is one formula that the team should turn to for its best chance to soften the blow.
Impact lost without Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
From a pure production perspective, Viliamu-Asa was having an impressive season. In 11 games, he had recorded 48 total tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, and two pass breakups. Those tackle, tackle for loss, and sack numbers all place the California native inside the top three on the team.
Beyond the raw numbers, Viliamu-Asa is an even more critical piece to the Irish defense. The versatility he brings is so important to Chris Ash’s unit, making his uniqueness even harder to replicate. With his combination of size, length, movement skills, and physicality, you can see Viliamu-Asa at several different alignments throughout a football game.
He has had snaps at MIKE, WILL, and on the EDGE this season. Viliamu-Asa can also play some SAM when Notre Dame chooses to play some 4-3 personnel. Quite simply, he’s a great football player, and the Irish are a better overall defense whenever and wherever he is on the field.
Recreating that impact
Viliamu-Asa is the most talented linebacker on the Notre Dame roster, and you just won’t replace that impact with one football player. It would be silly for the Irish staff to think they can. Instead, you have to pull a line from Billy Beane and Moneyball, and recreate him. You have to try mixing and matching a couple of options to recreate his production.
There will be some who say that you need to play Jaiden Ausberry more, who is already your third-best linebacker. The 6-2, 228-pound defender is also a very unique player, with a tremendous feel for the game and for navigating space.
While Ausberry needs to continue to play his role at a high level, he isn’t a stylistically similar athlete to Viliamu-Asa, and having him try to fill that role wouldn’t be wise.
The first part of the equation is Jaylen Sneed, who is a great athlete but an inconsistent one. He has shown with the Irish that he is at his best when playing a specific role. His best role is one that Viliamu-Asa has also played: pass rusher.
In those situations where you would see Viliamu-Asa rushing off the edge or blitzing from the interior, I’d expect to see more and more of Snead. He is an attack-style player who can make a variety of plays when appropriately deployed. Let Sneed attack without having to process too much, and he will remain a valuable asset to the defense.
When it comes to playing the more traditional off-ball role that Viliamu-Asa played, I would hope we get to see more of true freshman Madden Faraimo. At 6-2 and 235 pounds with extremely long arms, the talented young linebacker brings the length and physicality that was lost most with the injury to Viliamu-Asa. While you shouldn’t expect Faraimo to be perfect, his sheer presence physically should help to soften the blow of the KVA’s absence. If he doesn’t play a lot against Stanford to get him up to speed, it would be a big mistake.
The combination of Sneed and Faraimo would adequately recreate all the aspects of impact that Viliamu-Asa brings to the table. While the combination will undoubtedly be a bit more volatile, it would give Ash the best option to keep the defense exactly what it is right now: Versatile, fast, and one that tends to create a ton of game-changing plays.
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