Cal Sports Report

Notre Dame DT Transfer Aidan Keanaaina Commits to Cal

A torn ACL in spring of 2022 has limited the production of Keanaaina, who will be a grad transfer
Jake Curtis|
Notre Dame DT Transfer Aidan Keanaaina Commits to Cal
Notre Dame DT Transfer Aidan Keanaaina Commits to Cal

Cal picked up another grad transfer on Saturday when Notre Dame defensive tackle Aiden Keanaaina committed to transferring to Cal. He announced his commitment on social media.

He has two seasons of eligibility remaining and missed much of the past two seasons after suffering a torn ACL in March 2022.

Keanaaina is scheduled to arrive at Cal for the spring term, so he would be eligible to participate in the upcoming spring practice with the Bears.

Keanaaina is the third player who has committed to Cal in recent weeks as a grad transfer, joining North Texas quarterback Chandler Rogers and UC Davis linebacker Teddye Buchanan.

Keanaaina’s production at Notre Dame was limited, presumably because of his knee injury. The 6-foot-3, 315-pound Keanaaina was a senior in 2023, and he played in six games with no starts and recorded seven tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack. In 2022, Keanaaina recorded three tackles, and in 2021 he had one tackle.

He was a four-star recruit coming out of Denver, Colorado, and had offers coming out of Mullen High School from Michigan, Oregon, USC, Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Florida and Tennessee among others.

His four finalists were Notre Dame, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Cal before he chose the Fighting Irish.

Cover photo of Aidan Keanaaina by Swiercz / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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