Liona Lefau's midseason ascension made him one of the SEC's best coverage linebackers

Heading into week seven of the 2024 CFB season, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian made a change to his defense.

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Sarkisian had spent the first five games using a simple four-man rotation at the linebacker position. This grouping played 87% of the LB snaps in the out-of-conference and Mississippi State game.

WLB: MLB
GR David Gbenda (145 Snaps) SO Anthony Hill (197 Snaps)
SR Morice Blackwell (89 Snaps) SO Liona Lefau (81 Snaps)

The utilization made sense from the jump. Hill and Gbenda were both returning starters, with Hill moving from a quasi-pass rusher role back into MLB, where he had been recruited to play as a five-star out of Denton Ryan. Blackwell had been a long-time special teams ace who was finally getting a chance to play legitimate snaps, and Lefau was a coverage-first field general with a good head for the game, allowing him to play early on in his second season despite his three-star recruiting rating.

But after the Mississippi State game, Sarkisian felt the need to alter this lineup. Hill would keep at the Mike, but Sarkisian wanted to find more ways to get the Hawaii native on the field. Lefau switched over to the Will position, one he was less natural at but still possessed the right traits to play.

He was capable in coverage, the best in the unit, and the routes he would be tasked with covering expanded as a Will. Instead of mostly playing hooks and man against tight ends and running backs, Lefau at the Mike would find himself playing flat routes, running with posts and wheels and making snap decisions on coverage sets.

In the ensuing five games, Lefau mostly took over the role.

WLB: MLB:
SO Liona Lefau (191 Snaps) SO Anthony Hill (276 Snaps)
GR David Gbenda (96 Snaps) FR Ty’Anthony Smith (46 Snaps)
SR Morice Blackwell (53 Snaps)

He played his best coverage almost immediately, being targeted in the Georgia game five times and only allowing seven receiving yards and breaking up a pass. He was still raw as a run defender from the boundary side, part of why Trevor Etienne had such a stellar game, but the blueprint had been laid for Texas to have a high-powered sophomore duo at linebacker.

His signature game would come six weeks later, heading into the calamity that was Kyle Field in late November. Lefau was everywhere on the field, registering six solo tackles, four of which were stops, and playing such strong coverage that he had more pass breakups (1) than registered targets (0). He was a vacuum in run defense and helped limit the interior pass catchers of Texas A&M to 50 total yards.

Lefau now enters his third year in Austin and has a surprisingly strong resume already under his belt. He is one of just 11 returning SEC linebackers who played over 500 snaps last season. Of that group, Lefau gave up the fewest receiving yards despite being seventh in total targets. He was also second in passer rating allowed. Only Alabama’s Deontae Lawson and Tennessee’s Arion Carter had better rate coverage stats.

The junior will yet again be met with some competition in 2025. Instead of the veteran Gbenda, Lefau is battling some newcomers to the position. Trey Moore played edge all of last season but has worked extensively this offseason at the Will. Brad Spence, an Arkansas transfer, entered college as an edge but has worked his way into being a strong SEC linebacker. Inside Texas has written about how sources have raved about his coverage skills since joining the team.

No spots are guaranteed on Sarkisian’s roster, and Moore may be the better pure football player than Lefau.

WLB: MLB:
JR Liona Lefau JR Anthony Hill
SR Trey Moore JR Brad Spence
SO Ty’Anthony Smith FR Elijah Barnes

This is likely how the depth chart looks now, with Moore potentially also working back in as an edge rusher. No matter what, Texas has a treasure chest worth of talent at the edge and linebacker spots, and Lefau brings something unique to the table that isn’t present anywhere else on this roster.

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While many of Texas’ best defenders have taken a leap in their fourth or fifth years in the program (see T’Vondre Sweat, Jahdae Barron), Lefau is in a prime position to do the same in his third season.