Notre Dame received some wonderful news on Sunday evening as linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa committed to the Irish. The 6’2″ 230 pounder from St. John Bosco in California becomes the most recent verbal from that school since Notre Dame legend D.J. Morgan back in 2016. KVA was offered in March 2022 and took an official visit to South Bend last month in addition to crucial visits to USC and Ohio State.
BREAKING: Absolutely MASSIVE pickup for #NotreDame, as elite linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa announces his commitment to the Fighting Irish.
The ND staff is surely going will right now inside the Gug.
Story: https://t.co/6xWLf6Oyfc@AsaViliamu @boscofootball @247Sports pic.twitter.com/uAzSSxTqgZ
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) July 23, 2023
It was believed Notre Dame was fading with the Californian linebacker in recent weeks as steam was picking up from the Ohio State side of things. However, over the past couple days recruiting experts began wondering about the Buckeyes chances with the Irish potentially ready to hang on for someone who slots in as the 3rd best recruit of the class according to the 247 Composite.
Recruiting Service Rankings
247Sports Composite — 4 star (.9499), #102 overall, #8 LB, #14 in CA
On3 Consensus — 4 star (93.07 rating), #109 overall, #8 LB, #13 in CA
The 247 Composite and On3 Consensus both combine 247, On3, Rivals, and ESPN rankings.
247Sports — 4 star (93 rating), #87 overall, #9 LB, #10 in CA
On3 — 4 star (90 rating), NR overall, #27 LB, #30 in CA
Rivals — 4 star (6.0 rating), #35 overall, #3 LB, #6 in CA
ESPN — 4 star (82 rating), #157 overall, #11 LB, #14 in CA
Irish Sports Daily — 4 star (94 rating)
I’ve always said Rivals knows what they’re talking about. I’m kidding, but On3 what are you doing??
Cohort
In addition to Notre Dame, Ohio State, and USC he was holding offers from Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington, and several other Power 5 programs.
Highlights
KVA impressed during Bosco’s 2020 Covid-shortened season as a true freshman and immediately put himself on the national radar for recruiting. Unfortunately, he missed his sophomore season with a knee injury. He came back with vengeance during his junior season and didn’t look the least bit hampered. The second play in his highlight package shows tremendous back-pedaling, smoothness, and athleticism for his size. That type of play completely stood out for the type of ceiling KVA can have in college.
At his size and weight surely KVA will be an inside linebacker prospect for Notre Dame and has the ceiling of a dominant player at either position. There’s no need to sugar coat things–his speed and athleticism absolutely jump off the screen. Even more so as Bosco plays among the best schedules in the country.
He blitzes really well, too. As a tackler, KVA gets low and packs a lot of power with plenty of anger when he arrives at the ball carrier. I just don’t see any weaknesses. This is one of the best defensive prospects overall that Notre Dame has picked up in recent years.
Impact
Coming in with back-to-back classes of Drayk Bowen and Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is crucial to the future of the linebacker corps. They were both similarly rated as recruits but I’d give KVA the edge on overall athleticism and the breadth of what he can do on the football field.
It’ll be exciting to see how the future unfolds. Will Bowen be the Mike and KVA the playmaker at Will?
Welcome to the Irish family, Kyngstonn!
We are so back
Great info. Will quiet reservations on winning a 230 pound MLB and losing a 300+ DT to Ohio and enjoy finally getting the seemingly rare win of an elite prospect who seemingly was a tossup in the days/weeks leading up to today. Solid win
How fast can he gain 70 pounds?
Close but I don’t think you’re gonna like what DL spot they move Polynesian MLB’s from California to..
Jamie U noted that he could be like Manti Teo – that’s saying a lot.
Besides the top 50 OL we’re likely to get – what other recruits are we in on in 2024? Or are we mostly waiting for senior year to start before we pick up on a few extra guys?
Well they’re still trying to flip CB- Beasley (Tn) and DT- Scott (tOSU)
BTW saw a post on an OSU site that said KVA only went with ND because of NIL$….that made me chuckle.
haha. NIL makes a nice catch-all for fans to blame when they miss out on a kid, regardless of how true it is. That one hurts for them, it got a lot of press about him wearing Ohio gloves around to camps lately and all
haha yea. I saw a quote from the player about how he just didn’t own a pair of USC or ND gloves so he wore the OSU gloves and was laughing at how everyone made a big deal of out it even though it was meaningless as a sign about where he wanted to go.
yea is that it? Only already committed prospects?
Yes, Lambert is definitely a possibility. Impressive recruiting work over the last two years by this staff having been left with major holes at WR, the Secondary as well as looming needs at the time for QB, DL and LB. Obtaining transfers at some of these helped.
Recruiting success should be judged in two class grouping. Kelly was a minor factor in recruiting and left us with those holes and would have gutted us by poaching our Coordinators. Freeman filled assistant coaches positions as a few others left who formed those vital relationships with prospects.
Pierce attributed his relationship with Laurinaitis as a major factor in his commitment to Ohio State last year and in OSU being in KVA’s final three.
Davis Andrews, S, is returning to ND for the BBQ with all signs pointing towards a commitment. He is expected to go on a mission, so is effectively a 2026 recruit.
One can hope the staff flips Rushing, too.
It sounded like after Rushing’s OV, it was clear that he wasn’t particularly interested in ND anymore. It wouldn’t surprise me if he flips, but highly doubt it would be to ND.
Agreed. Lambert is like 99% expected for ND, Rushing is out of the picture, no reason to even keep him in mind any more, IMO. I’m sure they’ll work on Scott and keep that open but who knows how likely that would be at this point either.
I almost feel like we have a better shot at Scott now that he is committed somewhere else. He definitely feels like someone who will flip at some point (although more likely to UGA/Bama/etc).
If he had committed to ND, I’d give it like a 10% chance that we sign him. But now that he is committed somewhere else, I give us maybe a 15% chance.