The Notre Dame linebacker room has a chance to be elite heading into the 2026 CFB season. What questions still need answering?
Notre Dame football opens fall camp on Aug. 6, and the Fighting Irish linebacker room is one of the most talented position groups on the roster.
Under head coach Marcus Freeman and first-year linebacker coach Brian Jean-Mary , Notre Dame can legitimately go five deep at linebacker with Drayk Bowen , Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa , Jaiden Ausberry , Jaylen Sneed , and Madden Faraimo . That kind of depth is rare in college football and could give the Irish defense a potentially outstanding rotation in 2026.
While the talent is evident and the depth is vast, this room carries question marks heading into camp.
Jean-Mary is stepping into the role vacated by former linebacker coach Max Bullough, and there are legitimate unknowns to sort out before the season opener. Here are the three questions worth watching as Notre Dame gets to work this week.
The biggest question mark starts with Viliamu-Asa, who has the upside and potential to be the best linebacker in college football. The 6-3, 230-pound defender has been a tremendous player over the last two seasons in the opportunities he has been given.
If healthy, there are expectations that he could eventually enter the 2027 NFL Draft and become a true breakout star for the Irish defense under defensive coordinator Chris Ash .
The questions for Viliamu-Asa revolve around his overall health. He suffered a torn ACL later in the 2025 season, and many are wondering exactly when he will be set for a full return this year. In a recent update to local Notre Dame media, Freeman said Viliamu-Asa has been designated to return, although he has not been cleared for game action yet.
That is a positive outcome.
Now the question turns to whether he will be ready for Game 1 or whether Notre Dame will slow-play his progress early in the 2026 season, hoping to get the best version of him down the stretch. When he does return, how healthy will he actually be? He is one of the keys to unlocking the eliteness of this Notre Dame defense.
Notre Dame fans had a good idea of what the staff wanted to do under Bullough, but with Jean-Mary now leading this position group, the scheme and usage could look slightly different. Viliamu-Asa and Sneed have both been used as pass rushers at times. Will that continue this year? Will there be more of an emphasis on pass coverage, which has not been a huge staple of this room in the past?
The overall usage and snap distribution between each player is going to be incredibly intriguing to monitor throughout fall camp. Jean-Mary's fingerprints on this group will start to become visible quickly, and the way he deploys five capable linebackers could define the ceiling of this defense.
The third question revolves around Faraimo, who enters his sophomore year with an argument alongside Viliamu-Asa as the most physically talented linebacker in the room. After getting his feet wet as a freshman, the question is whether he is ready to jump ahead of players like Ausberry and Sneed to become the third linebacker in the rotation, or whether he will once again be relegated to fifth on the depth chart.
Faraimo perhaps has the most volatility of anyone in the group. He could emerge as the second or third best linebacker on the team, or he could settle in as a fifth option with a breakout waiting until 2027. The questions around Faraimo are simply about when that breakout will happen, and fall camp should provide the first real answers.
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Notre Dame Fall camp preview: Linebacker room brings elite upside, but some injury and usage question marks
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