Notre Dame linebacker Marist Liufau named one of 12 Collegiate Butkus Award semifinalists
On Monday, the Butkus Award named Notre Dame graduate student linebacker Marist Liufau one of 12 finalists for the annual honor presented to the nation’s top linebacker.
The 6-foot-2¼, 239-pound Liufau has been one of the program’s top defenders this season. In 10 games, he has registered 38 tackles (21 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. He also has two quarterback hurries and a pair of pass breakups.
Liufau is one of three Irish players to have recorded a forced fumble and fumble recovery. Senior safeties Ramon Henderson and Xavier Watts have also achieved that mark.
According to Pro Football Focus, Liufau has been Notre Dame’s second-best defender in coverage this season. He has an 82.3 grade, which ranks 10th in the country among Power Five linebackers who have charted at least 20% of 333 coverage snaps. His grade trails only former freshman All-America cornerback Benjamin Morrison on the Irish roster.
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Liufau is also tied for third on the team in pressures (21), the best among Irish linebackers. That stat is also tied for seventh among Power Five linebackers. Oklahoma State’s Collin Oliver leads the way with 30.
Since 2012, Notre Dame has had three linebackers win the collegiate version of the Butkus Award: Manti Te’o (2012), Jaylon Smith (2015) and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (2020). Smith and Te’o are the only players to win the high school and collegiate awards.
Liufau is a product of Honolulu Punahou, a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Hawai’i.
About the Butkus Award
Via the Butkus Award about landing page: Instituted in 1985, The Butkus Award® is one of the elite individual honors, originally given each year to one player in college football: the most impactful linebacker in the game.
In 2008, The Butkus Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, took stewardship of the award to fully realize the original purpose of honoring athletic achievement and service to the community. Since that time, the award has honored the nation’s best high school, college, and professional linebackers. An independent Butkus Award Selection Committee conducts the selection process each year.
The committee is comprised of 51 experts, including professional, college, and high school scouts, and prominent sports journalists.
2023 Collegiate Butkus Award Semifinalists
- Tommy Eichenberg, Ohio State
- Jaylan Ford, Texas
- Cedric Gray, North Carolina
- Jay Higgins, Iowa
- Ty’Ron Hopper, Missouri
- Curtis Jacobs, Penn State
- Deontae Lawson, Alabama
- Marist Liufau, Notre Dame
- Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Clemson
- Edefuan Ulofoshio, Washington
- Nathaniel Watson, Mississippi State
- Payton Wilson, NC State
