Notre Dame Football: Buck Linebacker Outlook
Let’s look at Notre Dame’s buck linebacker personnel.
Out with the old, in with the new.
The Fighting Irish are eliminating one of their traditional linebacker positions and replacing it with an innovative rover position in a schematical shift.
Mike Elko’s new 4-2-5 defense is an effective scheme that requires new personnel. There will be a significant shake-up across the board and it starts with the linebacker unit.
We all know that Nyles Morgan will be the unquestioned starter in the center of the defense. The buck linebacker isn’t so clear. However, they aren’t thin on options by any means. There are some talented and experienced players who have been training hard to play football this fall.
Greer Martini is the senior of the bunch, and also a captain. He has plenty of experience and not just by snap count.
The 6’2.5, 240 lb. Virginia native has cross trained at strong and weak side backer in the old defense as well as mike, which he played in his true freshman campaign due to a seriously depleted depth chart, as well as cross-trained there last year, (most likely as an insurance policy).
Martini excels against the option and other types of run-heavy offenses like Stanford. He has great instincts when it comes to reacting to the run, especially keeping containment, and is strong enough to hold the edge.
Last season, Martini totaled 55 tackles, 7 tackles for loss, 3 sacks and 1 pass break up over all 12 games that he saw action. He certainly was a solid contributor even though he wasn’t a weekly starter.
I expect Martini to do more of the same in ’17 as well as learn the rover position as they may use him there in certain looks. It’ll be very interesting to see how he has developed for his pinnacle senior season.
Te’von Coney got himself into some trouble late last August which caused him to lose the trust of the staff. He didn’t play as much as he probably would have had he kept his nose clean.
As the season went on, and all was forgotten, Coney was often too good to keep off the field. He led the weak side linebacker position in tackles by compiling 61 total stops, 4 tackles for loss and 1 QB hurry.
Coney put together a few very strong games. He had an impressive outing against Michigan State with 9 tackles and 1 QB hurry as well as a 10 tackle performance when Virginia Tech came to town.
If Coney can play at this kind of level on a every game basis, he will surely be the starter.
Te’von Coney’s fellow junior classmate, Asmar Bilal, is an intriguing prospect. He shows flashes of dynamic athleticism at times but has a few things to work on. He has two full seasons under his belt now and will have a full Balis-led off-season completed when September rolls around.
Bilal could have the highest ceiling of the three given his length and natural talent.
In ’16, he tallied 26 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 1 sack in his limited snaps. He chipped in 5 tackles in the hurricane nightmare against North Carolina State and put up 4 tackles in each of the VT and USC games.
Bilal’s rangy skill set and quick feet will land him a shot at the rover position in ’17. He lined up at the new position with the first-team during the first spring practice. There’s speculation that Spencer Perry, D.J. Morgan and Drue Tranquill will also train at rover so Bilal will likely still take practice reps at buck.
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It’ll be interesting to see how it will all shake out.
I think the best case scenario would be if Coney builds on his strong performance from ’16 and shows up with a solid understanding of the new defense and puts together more double-digit tackle games.
Greer Martini can man the buck position for most of the Navy and Stanford matchups as well as bad weather games that may call for a heavy rush attack. His track record with these gritty games is quite good.
Asmar Bilal can wait in the wings and fill in at the position when the other two are banged up, need a breather or, god forbid, have an injury.