Notre Dame faces major test as freshman steps in for Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa injury

As Notre Dame football heads into its final game of the season and prepares for an at-large bid to the College Football Playoffs, Chris Ash's unit knows it has to prepare without one of its best defenders. Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is out for the year, and in his place, Madden Faraimo will be the first man up.

While the freshman will likely share time with sophomore Kahanu Kia, Faraimo is expected to be "the guy" for the most part against Stanford. The good news is that he's saying all the right things about being ready to go.

"It's a moment right now where I need to be ready." Faraimo told Notre Dame media members earlier this week. "So I think that past where I've been struggling is gonna prepare me for any opportunities I have coming up."

Madden Faraimo is preparing to fill Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa’s shoes for Notre Dame

Faraimo also made it clear that he's learned a lot from KVA and that will continue as the veteran helps him deal with the opportunity he's been given in what the Fighting Irish hope are several more games this year.

"He's a big leader-by-example kind of guy," Faraimo said. "I see it every day. He comes in early, he's always here late, in the film room and off the field. In the classroom, he really handles his business."

"Kyng’s down, and with anyone that’s terrible news to hear," Faraimo added. "But especially Kyngstonn, such a great person on and off the field. So that’s devastating news, but he’s not going anywhere. He’s going to be the leader he is on the team."

The freshman linebacker already showed glimpses of what he can do in KVA's absence. While he has just 14 tackles on the season, he racked up 5 of them, as well as his first career sack, against Syracuse on Saturday afternoon. Now Notre Dame needs him to reproduce that performance and build on it against Stanford this weekend.