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koonja
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Agreed. He played very well.
'15 IN ILB/OLB Asmar Bilal (Notre Dame Signed NLI)
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Agreed. He played very well.
Veritate Duce Progredi
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Big props to Bilal, he was in on a lot of plays and seemed assignment sound. We're finally seeing Bilal just cut loose, let's hope this continues.
It appears we're getting better each week.
It appears we're getting better each week.
Sherm Sticky
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Agree. I think Bilal and White have locked down the inside LB spots now.
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Irish YJ
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Looked like his best game that I can remember
Sherm Sticky
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Definitely one of his best games if not his best game overall.
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irishff1014
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I don’t think it was his best game but he did play good. He was a little slow to react on a few plays but over he didn’t hurt us at all last that’s for sure.
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I didn't think he played well, I remember a lot of plays where he was in position to make the tackle but got carried another 3 yards. Same applies to White, but he was worse than Bilal. A lot of bouncing off ball carriers for our safeties and LBs all game long.
dad4aa
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T-Boone
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Its interesting though because he was garbage against Louisville and not that good as rover last year compared to the other rovers ND has had in the rover era.
So my main thing to take out of it is Lea is a magician.
zelezo vlk
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And to think none of this would have happened if Koon hadn't pushed him
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koonja
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This was 100% accurate when it was posted.
Crazy Balki
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Yeah, I'm all for Koon jabs when deserved, but I thought much of the same about Bilal when watching the UL game.
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Rule #76: No excuses, play like a champion.
Rule #77: Koon is always wrong, even when he's not.
Domina Nostra
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Why be fair? We are talking about ripping kids playing a new position after 1 game, really 1 quarter of one game. Fair has nothing to do with it!
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Pretty good article from the Indy Star on how the pandemic has affected Bilal. He tested pretty good. Someone is going to get a pretty good UFA.
Asmar Bilal is one of the NFL draft prospects the pandemic has hurt the worst. Here's why.
Asmar Bilal’s 40-yard dash should have happened on the first of April, with him surrounded by Notre Dame teammates, hundreds of NFL eyes locked on a perfectly primed Bilal rising out of his stance, legs churning, arms pumping as he chased his dream. That was the day he planned to grab the NFL’s attention.
Bilal needed that moment, needed his chance in the spotlight. The Ben Davis product hadn’t played in an all-star showcase in January, narrowly missed out on an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine. Notre Dame’s Pro Day was his chance.
Then the coronavirus pandemic ripped it away. Bilal is one of the NFL draft prospects the pandemic has hurt the worst, the guys who never got a chance to play or test in front of scouts, coaches and general managers before the spectre of COVID-19 pulled everybody off the road.
“I feel like there’s something about seeing somebody in person, seeing the explosiveness and the ability in person, it makes it more legitimate or convincing,” Bilal said. “I wasn’t necessarily able to show them that.”
Built for NFL
Bilal’s the kind of athlete who can catch an NFL team's eye in the final month and a half of the draft process, force them to go back and look at the film again to see if there’s something the all-star showcases and the Combine missed.
“Asmar has the physical gifts of an NFL linebacker. He’s got the height, weight, speed, explosive power and strength,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea said. “His best football’s ahead of him, for sure.”
Bilal was something of a late bloomer in college. Always a freak athlete, Bilal initially started out at the rover position, Notre Dame’s linebacker-safety hybrid, and didn’t get to take over at his natural position until Drue Tranquill was snapped up by the Chargers in the fourth round of last year’s draft.
Fully unleashed at the Buck linebacker position last fall, Bilal made 79 tackles and 10 tackles-for-loss, improving with every snap.
“Any time you move positions, like he did last spring, there’s a learning curve involved in that, and I think what we saw was after a couple of games, he really settled in and was able to be really productive and instinctive and let his physical traits shine through,” Lea said.
Bilal, Lea believes, is the perfect linebacker for the modern game, a rangy player who can run alleys, be an effective blitzer and cover like a safety, owing to his past as a rover, often lined up in man-to-man coverage on tight ends and slot receivers.
All of those attributes are on film. But to play that role in the NFL, a team has to know a player has the athletic ability to handle the role.
Adversity and innovation
Bilal was hoping he’d get a chance to show teams what he could do at the NFL Scouting Combine.
According to his Indianapolis-based agents, Justin Faires and Buddy Baker, he was right on the edge of earning one of the 337 invites issued this year; about 10 NFL teams wanted to see him on the Lucas Oil Stadium turf in Indianapolis.
“I really had high hopes I’d be able to squeeze in after a solid season,” Bilal said. “I was kind of disappointed. … I felt like I was going to be able to showcase my raw skills, my speed and my strength.”
Bilal recovered quickly, threw himself into his training at D1 Training in Tampa, eyes on Notre Dame’s Pro Day, training into early March as the coronavirus storm clouds began to gather.
As news of the outbreak grew, Bilal stuck to his plan, heading back to South Bend in early March to train there for a couple of weeks before pro day. By the time April 1 arrived, Bilal planned to be in peak condition.
“That’s when it hit,” Bilal said. “Once I got here, they kind of shut down access to the university.”
On March 17, Notre Dame canceled its Pro Day.
Faires realized he had to find a way to get a Bilal workout in front of NFL scouts. First, he called scouts and team executives, asking if they’d watch a video of a makeshift pro day, even if it wasn’t official. Then he called Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, who gave him a comprehensive set of videos, outlining every drill Bilal probably would have been asked to do at Notre Dame’s Pro Day.
A couple of Bilal’s high school coaches agreed to run the workout at his high school field at Ben Davis, and Faires found a video crew capable of recording everything. On March 24, the day before the state of Indiana’s stay-at-home order went into effect, Bilal finally got a chance to run his 40.
Bilal put up impressive numbers at his makeshift pro day. He measured in at 6-2, 231 pounds, then pounded out 26 repetitions on the bench press, a number that would have been the second-best mark at the Combine. Bilal ran the 40 in 4.52 seconds (a mark that would have been sixth-fastest at his position) and ran the shuttle in 4.18 seconds (second-best).
Bilal backed up the reputation he’d built as a freak athlete at Notre Dame. According to the numbers recorded, Bilal would have placed in the top 10 in every drill he performed on that lonely field.
But there were no scouts in attendance, no way to independently verify the numbers, and honestly, Bilal felt as if he could have done better. Instead of training in the Notre Dame gym and getting to peak performance, Bilal had been working out inside his house, trekking over to Notre Dame’s outdoor fields for the work he couldn’t do at home, making up a routine as he went.
Bilal had some help, to be sure, from Notre Dame coaches and from other teammates trying to devise their own impromptu workouts, but it wasn’t the same as the plan he’d put together before the coronavirus hit.
“I was kind of disappointed with my pro day,” Bilal said. “I did those numbers off of just raw strength.”
The good news is that teams are watching. When Faires called around the NFL, every single team said they would watch a pro day video, and there has been interest. Bilal has done video conference calls with both the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons, and if he doesn’t get drafted, a lot of teams see the former Notre Dame linebacker as a priority free agent, the kind of player who won’t have to worry about getting left out in the feeding frenzy.
Even if this draft process has been far from ideal. “It’s unprecedented,” Bilal said. “At the end of the day, it’ll work itself out, but it most definitely made it harder, just because the routine isn’t set to what everyone was expecting. I would never have expected to be trying to find at-home workouts to get ready for my rookie season.”
Or to run his 40 on a lonely field in Indianapolis, away from the NFL’s eyes.
In a time like this, all a player like Bilal can do is be ready for whatever comes next.
Asmar Bilal is one of the NFL draft prospects the pandemic has hurt the worst. Here's why.
Asmar Bilal’s 40-yard dash should have happened on the first of April, with him surrounded by Notre Dame teammates, hundreds of NFL eyes locked on a perfectly primed Bilal rising out of his stance, legs churning, arms pumping as he chased his dream. That was the day he planned to grab the NFL’s attention.
Bilal needed that moment, needed his chance in the spotlight. The Ben Davis product hadn’t played in an all-star showcase in January, narrowly missed out on an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine. Notre Dame’s Pro Day was his chance.
Then the coronavirus pandemic ripped it away. Bilal is one of the NFL draft prospects the pandemic has hurt the worst, the guys who never got a chance to play or test in front of scouts, coaches and general managers before the spectre of COVID-19 pulled everybody off the road.
“I feel like there’s something about seeing somebody in person, seeing the explosiveness and the ability in person, it makes it more legitimate or convincing,” Bilal said. “I wasn’t necessarily able to show them that.”
Built for NFL
Bilal’s the kind of athlete who can catch an NFL team's eye in the final month and a half of the draft process, force them to go back and look at the film again to see if there’s something the all-star showcases and the Combine missed.
“Asmar has the physical gifts of an NFL linebacker. He’s got the height, weight, speed, explosive power and strength,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea said. “His best football’s ahead of him, for sure.”
Bilal was something of a late bloomer in college. Always a freak athlete, Bilal initially started out at the rover position, Notre Dame’s linebacker-safety hybrid, and didn’t get to take over at his natural position until Drue Tranquill was snapped up by the Chargers in the fourth round of last year’s draft.
Fully unleashed at the Buck linebacker position last fall, Bilal made 79 tackles and 10 tackles-for-loss, improving with every snap.
“Any time you move positions, like he did last spring, there’s a learning curve involved in that, and I think what we saw was after a couple of games, he really settled in and was able to be really productive and instinctive and let his physical traits shine through,” Lea said.
Bilal, Lea believes, is the perfect linebacker for the modern game, a rangy player who can run alleys, be an effective blitzer and cover like a safety, owing to his past as a rover, often lined up in man-to-man coverage on tight ends and slot receivers.
All of those attributes are on film. But to play that role in the NFL, a team has to know a player has the athletic ability to handle the role.
Adversity and innovation
Bilal was hoping he’d get a chance to show teams what he could do at the NFL Scouting Combine.
According to his Indianapolis-based agents, Justin Faires and Buddy Baker, he was right on the edge of earning one of the 337 invites issued this year; about 10 NFL teams wanted to see him on the Lucas Oil Stadium turf in Indianapolis.
“I really had high hopes I’d be able to squeeze in after a solid season,” Bilal said. “I was kind of disappointed. … I felt like I was going to be able to showcase my raw skills, my speed and my strength.”
Bilal recovered quickly, threw himself into his training at D1 Training in Tampa, eyes on Notre Dame’s Pro Day, training into early March as the coronavirus storm clouds began to gather.
As news of the outbreak grew, Bilal stuck to his plan, heading back to South Bend in early March to train there for a couple of weeks before pro day. By the time April 1 arrived, Bilal planned to be in peak condition.
“That’s when it hit,” Bilal said. “Once I got here, they kind of shut down access to the university.”
On March 17, Notre Dame canceled its Pro Day.
Faires realized he had to find a way to get a Bilal workout in front of NFL scouts. First, he called scouts and team executives, asking if they’d watch a video of a makeshift pro day, even if it wasn’t official. Then he called Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, who gave him a comprehensive set of videos, outlining every drill Bilal probably would have been asked to do at Notre Dame’s Pro Day.
A couple of Bilal’s high school coaches agreed to run the workout at his high school field at Ben Davis, and Faires found a video crew capable of recording everything. On March 24, the day before the state of Indiana’s stay-at-home order went into effect, Bilal finally got a chance to run his 40.
Bilal put up impressive numbers at his makeshift pro day. He measured in at 6-2, 231 pounds, then pounded out 26 repetitions on the bench press, a number that would have been the second-best mark at the Combine. Bilal ran the 40 in 4.52 seconds (a mark that would have been sixth-fastest at his position) and ran the shuttle in 4.18 seconds (second-best).
Bilal backed up the reputation he’d built as a freak athlete at Notre Dame. According to the numbers recorded, Bilal would have placed in the top 10 in every drill he performed on that lonely field.
But there were no scouts in attendance, no way to independently verify the numbers, and honestly, Bilal felt as if he could have done better. Instead of training in the Notre Dame gym and getting to peak performance, Bilal had been working out inside his house, trekking over to Notre Dame’s outdoor fields for the work he couldn’t do at home, making up a routine as he went.
Bilal had some help, to be sure, from Notre Dame coaches and from other teammates trying to devise their own impromptu workouts, but it wasn’t the same as the plan he’d put together before the coronavirus hit.
“I was kind of disappointed with my pro day,” Bilal said. “I did those numbers off of just raw strength.”
The good news is that teams are watching. When Faires called around the NFL, every single team said they would watch a pro day video, and there has been interest. Bilal has done video conference calls with both the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons, and if he doesn’t get drafted, a lot of teams see the former Notre Dame linebacker as a priority free agent, the kind of player who won’t have to worry about getting left out in the feeding frenzy.
Even if this draft process has been far from ideal. “It’s unprecedented,” Bilal said. “At the end of the day, it’ll work itself out, but it most definitely made it harder, just because the routine isn’t set to what everyone was expecting. I would never have expected to be trying to find at-home workouts to get ready for my rookie season.”
Or to run his 40 on a lonely field in Indianapolis, away from the NFL’s eyes.
In a time like this, all a player like Bilal can do is be ready for whatever comes next.
Sherm Sticky
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Thank you for posting this. I will route very hard for Bilal to be successful at the NFL level. He is one of my favorite players on this team as he has overcome so much in his career at ND and finished with a really strong senior season.
I was very surprised that Asmar didn't get invited to any post season all-star showcases. Or he did get invited to one and didn't accept IDK. Jamir Jones was part of the NFL PA game, if Jamir who started a total of 3 or 4 games got invited to NFL PA, I would imagine Asmar should have been also and maybe he declined...Finke got invited and participated in the Shrine game.
Anyway I also believe he will at least make a practice squad and possibly a roster to play on special teams. BTW those testing numbers are legit...he blew Jalen Eliot out of the water on 40 yard dash.
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His speed is going to land him a spot.
T-Boone
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ulukinatme
Carr for QB 2026!
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Looks like he was cut on D-Day yesterday, along with a number of other former players, so teams could get down to 53.