OXNARD, Calif. 鈥 One look at Marist Liufau in the preseason opener between the 草莓视频下载入口 and Los Angeles Rams and you saw a man possessed, and if that's even a remote indication of what the young linebacker might become in Year 2, he'll give Linda Blair a run for her money.
Liufau has been on demon time the literal entirety of training camp, every single time he's on the field, and that means the explosive outing against the Rams was just a taste of how he plans to transfer his offseason evolution into regular season dominance.
"Oh, I feel great," Liufua said. "I missed it. It's been a little while, so I'm excited going into the second year. I feel confident and ready to go."
With the other young budding superstar linebacker, namely DeMarvion Overshown, set to miss the first chunk of the season due to recovery from a torn ACL, the Cowboys will need Liufau now as much as they did in 2024 鈥 when he was leaned upon so heavily due to injury at the position that he became the green dot for Mike Zimmer's defense.
Green dot, as a rookie, for Mike Zimmer.
Read that as many times as is needed to fully absorb the level of ability, both physical and mental, required to effectively pull that off as Liufau did, which should come as no surprise when considering he would memorize entire playbooks for the Fighting Irish, so that he would know everyone's assignments and not simply his own.
Now, heading into Year 2, the game is slowing down for him in a big way, and his explosiveness in the preseason opener was undeniably loaded with the "wow" factor, the very same that's been witnessed daily in Oxnard.
"I changed my body a little bit, and I feel like I'm flying around," said the former third-round pick out of Notre Dame. "I can [go] for a long time. I feel better than I did last year, for sure. 鈥 I would say just my football IQ [has increased] with a year on my belt in the NFL.
"I think that's helped me a lot to be more comfortable in playing in the NFL and, at this stage, it's helped my game a lot."
A scary thought indeed for opposing offenses, considering Liufau racked up 50 combined tackles (30 solo) as a rookie, good enough for top-7 on the Cowboys' defense, and tied the team for fifth-most tackles for loss (4), along with 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, three pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
Oh, and he did all of it in only nine starts.
And though he played in only a total of 31 snaps at SoFi Stadium, including eight on special teams, Liufau was the best player on the field, even after he was given the rightful hook at halftime by head coach Briach Schottenheimer and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus.
"I feel prepared," said Liufau. "I feel like training camp is going great for me and for the defense as a whole. I have all the confidence in us as a team, and as a defense, and I'm excited to get this year started, and Saturday was the first part of it."
Now, on to the second part which, not unlike the aforementioned Linda Blair, should turn a lot of heads.
