Notre Dame football got one step closer to filling out its elite linebacker haul of 2022 today when linebacker Niuafe “Junior” Tuihalamaka verbally committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6’2″/235-pounder out of Mission Hills, CA is the 15th player to join Notre Dame’s recruiting class of 2022 — a class which currently ranks #2 in the nation behind Ohio State.
If you follow our Big Board updates or maybe even read my Way-Too-Early Guess at Notre Dame’s 2022 Recruiting Class, you’d know by now that Junior was previously committed to USC for almost a full year from February 2020 until late January 2021. He decommitted from the Trojans just two days after receiving an offer from Notre Dame, and his recruitment has seemingly been all Irish since then. If the Irish had any competition in this one, it would be from Texas, as that’s the only other school he took an official visit to. But I’m not sure if this one was ever close down the stretch.
Recruiting Service Rankings
Rivals — 4 star (5.9 rating), #140 overall, #5 ILB, #10 in CA
ESPN — 4 star (84 rating), #95 overall, #1 ILB, #6 in CA
247Sports — 4 star (92 rating), #120 overall, #13 LB, #11 in CA
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9545), #108 overall, #11 LB, #10 in CA
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (91 rating)
Cohort
Junior chose the Irish over other offers from USC, Texas, Oregon, Stanford, Michigan, LSU, Florida, UCLA, Penn State and others. Including Notre Dame, his offer list totals 20 schools across the country.
Highlights
Junior is clearly a physical player based on his highlight footage. He’s at college-ready size already, and he uses that to his advantage in high school. He looks very comfortable playing downhill pursuing the ball-carrier. He shows the ability to take on blockers and fill gaps, but also the ability to shed those blocks and get in on the tackle. Coverage skills are going to be a question mark. His film mostly shows him blitzing on passing downs so that’s probably a bit more natural to him. His athletic profile suggests he could be serviceable in coverage at the next level as well, though.
Impact
Junior will fill the role of a true Mike linebacker at Notre Dame. I think it’s pretty clear based on his size, athletic profile, and playing style that Mike is the position he is best-suited for. Of course Drew White is the current Mike linebacker for Notre Dame but he won’t be around after 2021. Behind him, the Irish currently have Bo Bauer and JD Bertrand, with another 2022 commit in Josh Burnham being a possible fit at Mike as well. With Bauer and Bertrand only having one and two years of eligibility remaining, respectively, there will be plenty of opportunities for Burnham and Tuihalamaka to see the field or potentially even start early on in their careers.
As far as the recruiting impact goes, this makes three linebacker commits for Notre Dame in 2022 — all of them 4-star prospects. There is only one spot left at this point, and it’s looking very likely that Top 100 linebacker Jaylen Sneed will snag that spot in the coming weeks. I’m not sure if you’ll find a linebacker haul anywhere else in the country better than Tuihalamaka, Burnham, Ziegler, and Sneed. Hello, Marcus Freeman.
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Welcome to the Irish family, Junior!
Great pull, kid is a stud. Impossible not to be hype about the LB recruiting these days.
Great, even if expected, news!
Best LB class ever for ND (assuming Sneed)?
Sneed – 70
Tuihalamaka – 108
Burnham – 113
Ziegler – 316
And we likely have to turn away Cheeks – 127.
Though (to be debbie downer) I think I’d rather have Ohio State’s LB group who has 2 LB ranked in the top 50 (currently 18 and 38). LOL, AND they have two players ranked higher than their top LB (a corner and QB – two prime positions).
Word is Sneed has been looking better than both of those OSU commits at recent camps
Well that’s good news and would certainly change the outlook for the comparison if Sneed bumped up to something in the top 30 (assuming the guy who is 18 would drop some). Getting the top guy of a group is worth a lot – esp. for us.
Man he is large. With the way he seems to love to be physical, I do wonder if ND will be tempted to try to turn him into an edge rusher. He already looks like he’s the same size as sophomore year Daelin Hayes.
It’s possible although if we get Cyrus Moss (a long shot but still possible) we would be pretty loaded with edge rushers in this class already. Even without Moss we are good with edge rushers but I suppose you can never have enough talented rushers.
If we do think he could convert to that spot it would allow us to take Cheeks in the class as well.
Good points. You don’t see too many 240 pound linebackers these days, especially in college, they’re almost relics of the past. He could be an edge rusher or the drop DE it would seem. And that does open up a spot for Cheeks who it would be a shame to not have room for.
Opens up options, which makes it fun.
Seems like Cheeks is out – he canceled a visit to ND after presumably being told there was no room for him in the class.
ND is also recruiting two 5-star LBs for next year, so, amazingly, it might actually make sense to turn down Cheeks even if we don’t get Moss.
I didn’t realize that Cheeks had cancelled his visit. Did that happen recently?
He seemed to like ND and has visited unofficially several times but something just prevented him from pulling the trigger and it seems he was too slow.
Yeah, that just happened last week. Not hard to connect the dots with Junior and Sneed wrapping up their OVs around the time Cheeks’ visit was cancelled.
Thanks for the updates and extra nuggets of recruiting info — you are one of the reasons why we pay the high subscription fees for 18S!
It’s bananas. In most seasons, Cheeks would be one of the jewels of our recruiting class. Seems nuts to turn him away, but Freeman (who was personally working Cheeks going back to UC) has earned the benefit of the doubt in a short period of time. And there’s little doubt that Sneed is the better prospect if we only have room for one more LB.
I wouldn’t call Moss a long shot.
Well it’s recruiting so it’s hard to tell but we have been perceived to be leading for Moss so to me that’s a long shot. We may have pulled ahead after his visit but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I don’t get all the talk about him being a really physical player. His highlights seem to be more of a freak athlete who beats OL before they have a chance to put their hands on him, and chases people down from all over. I only watched about half the highlights, but I saw 1 play where he took on an OL, and not a single play where he left a player questioning his decision to play football ever again.
Based on reading nothing, and watching the highlights once, I would think he’d profile as either a coverage LB or pass rusher.
Am I missing something in these highlights?
There are multiple clips, mostly in the second half of his highlights, where he knocks opposing blockers back into the backfield.
1:22 and 1:47 are probably the best examples.
He definitely has more upside as a pass-rusher than in coverage. Wouldn’t really call him a freak athlete but he moves better than you’d expect as a 235-240 pound highschooler.
OK. I see those highlights. He puts those dudes on their bums. It’s probably his reaction/instincts/first step that makes him look so fast because he just gets where he’s going before anyone can do anything about it.
Was just scrolling through the 247 top 100 during a long boring work call. It’s weird how in what might be our best class in almost a decade, we have gotten none of the top local recruits.
IU and UK have commits from the top 2 players in IN … in football. What universe are we living in???? Granted they are from Bloomington and outside Louisville, but kind of a bummer that there are 3 top 100 players in IN, and we won’t get any of them.
Yeah, that is weird. The high rated Chicago WR’s barely gave ND a look too, which is pretty surprising and kinda disappointing/doesn’t seem great. But I guess they can make up for it otherwise.
But, in better news, the 2023 top Indiana recruit Drayk Bowen (LB, Merrillville) is ranked 25th right now and he’s 100% forecasted to ND right now. Sounds like a good course correction.
Dasan McCullough’s dad is part of the IU staff, Kiyaunta Goodwin from what I’ve heard is not an ND fit. I don’t think either have an offer from ND
Yeah, talent in the state has been better this year than in recent years (at least if you’re going off of recruits composite rankings).
ND hasn’t really had any interest in them, though. Landed Tanona, of course. But the only other player in the state to get an offer was DT Caden Curry, and even then the Irish never really pursued him.