Notre Dame Football is Seemingly Making Moves in Hawaii Again

Notre Dame is a finalist for one of the nation's top linebackers in the 2027 class, who happens to hail from Hawaii

November 24, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te'o (5) defends against the Southern California Trojans during the second half at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

For years, Notre Dame football held a pipeline of sorts to football talent out of the state of Hawaii.

Despite being over 4,000 miles from South Bend to the islands, Hawaii has been a place where Notre Dame has routinely pulled talent from for more than a decade.

While Notre Dame is looking for what's next after missing on a big-time prospect earlier this week, it's a fitting time to look at a place the program has found a quality amount of talent in recent years.

It's not hard to make the Notre Dame-Hawaii connection back to Manti Te'o to help that get started, but between the 2017 and 2021 recruiting cycles, Notre Dame saw four players come from the Aloha State. By no means a hot bed or a pipeline, but certainly a place that Notre Dame has developed a history with.

However, since the 2022 recruiting cycle, Notre Dame has pulled just one player from Hawaii: Linebacker Ko'o Kia in the 2025 class.

That's not to say the lack of recruits from Hawaii are hurting the Notre Dame classes as team rankings have skyrocketed in the last couple of cycles, it's simply just to note the change.

Well, Notre Dame is again looking back to the 50th state in the 2027 cycle, and this time its for one of the best linebackers in the nation.

Toa Satele of Hawaii Announces Recruiting Finalists

Toa Satele is rated as the nation's fourth overall linebacker in 2027 by 247Sports and on Monday, the Hawaiian star announced his four finalists.

The good news for Notre Dame is that it has a spot at his final table, with Texas, Oregon, and California also being in the final running.

NEWS: Four-Star LB Toa Satele is down to 4 Schools, he tells me for @Rivals⁰⁰The 6’3 225 LB from Mililani, HI is ranked as the No. 4 LB in the 2027 Class (per Rivals Industry)⁰⁰https://t.co/mWmhWbHatq pic.twitter.com/W2GT3JhDSH

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 18, 2026

Toa is the son of Samson Satele, who played at Hawaii and was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 2007.

He comes with a four-star rating and checks in at 6-3, 200 pounds. He'll make visits to each of his finalists this summer, with Notre Dame getting set to host the star defender beginning June 9.

Notre Dame's 2027 Linebacker Recruiting to Date

Notre Dame has put together a star-studded class in 2027, but largely not because of linebacker.

Of its 17 current commitments, only Amarri Irvin of IMG Academy in Florida plays linebacker. However, Notre Dame is currently in on a handful of very talented linebackers for the class, including Satele.

Kaden Henderson of Tampa is the biggest prize of the bunch, with Notre Dame being in the running along with Miami, Texas A&M, LSU, and Ohio State. His list of contenders tells you all you need to know about his talents.

Roman Igwebuike of Chicago powerhouse Mt. Carmel is also high on Notre Dame, but the likes of Indiana, Clemson, Missouri, and Tennessee also remain in hot pursuit. Igwebuike is widely viewed as a top-150 overall player in the cycle.

Sean Fox of Indianapolis (Warren Central) is another big name to keep an eye on. The 6-4 standout helped Warren Central to the Indiana 6A semifinals as a junior and is viewed as a top 25 linebacker nationally in this class.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thoughts

Notre Dame's run of pulling a recruit out of Hawaii was cool for a while, but was sort of like a party trick.

It was a fun thing to be able to say or do, but it's not like it was the secret sauce that was making Notre Dame competitive.

Manti Te'o was a legend - plain and simple.

Robby Toma had some special moments, including being clutch against Purdue in 2012 to get to 2-0 in the first place, and to avoid an embarrassing loss to a woeful opponent.

Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa had his time in the sun as well, while Marist Liufau played like a man possessed and is off to a great start two years into his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys.

Those are great and all, but if given the choice, as fun as it is to see Notre Dame pull stars out of Hawaii, it's much more beneficial to have true inroads developed in both Florida and Texas like is now the case.

That said, getting Satale to join this class would give a massive bump to the second level of Notre Dame's defense.