Notre Dame Is Making Linebacker Josiah Kia Feel Like A Priority

During the 2021 recruiting class, Notre Dame dipped into its Hawaii pipeline and signed Honolulu (Hawaii) Punahou linebacker Kahanu Kia. After playing his freshman year with the Irish, Kia is now currently on a LDS mission in Raleigh, North Carolina and is set to return for the 2024 season.

Now flash forwarding to the 2025 recruiting class, Notre Dame is now recruiting Josiah Kia, Kahanu’s younger brother. The program is hoping to once again attract a talented player from Hawaii, a state that has given them standouts like Manti Te’o, Kona Schwenke, Robby Toma, Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, Jordan Botelho and Marist Liufau.

During an interview with Irish Breakdown, Kia updated his recruitment, which has gotten busier and busier. Despite the substantial interest from several big time programs, Kia is still focused on one goal right now.

"Since I talked to you last I picked up a few more offers," Kia told Irish Breakdown. "I’m not planning to go on any recruiting trips until after my junior season. My main focus until the winter is to have a great junior season and win a state championship.”

Travel being a little difficult isn’t a total surprise coming from Hawaii. Even with the remote conversations, Notre Dame has done an impressive job to appeal to Kia early on.

"I’ve developed a good relationship with the staff at Notre Dame,” he explained. "I’ve remained in contact with multiple defensive coaches on their staff. I really like the staff they have defensively, specifically Coach (Al) Golden and Coach (Max) Bullough.

"I absolutely love the fact that the head coach, Coach (Marcus) Freeman, is a former defensive coach as well,” Kia added. "It is something that stands out to me big time.”

Obviously Kia has an already deep knowledge of Notre Dame football. The program is an easy sell for Kia, who fully appreciates the values that it brings.

"The biggest thing that stands out to me about Notre Dame is that it offers something different than other schools do because they are such a prestigious school that is also paired with a great football program,” he said. "Their message has been that they want me and they are definitely one of the schools I am considering.”

On film, Kia is an ideal rover target who has the upside to transition inside down the line. The Hawaii star already has a high level of interest in the Notre Dame program, partly due to his brother but mostly due to the staff’s efforts so far.

Kia has begun to put together a very impressive offer list. He has done especially well on the West Coast over the past year. Some of his notable offers include the Irish, USC, Texas, Utah, Washington State, Arizona State, BYU and Arizona among others.

The 6-2, 190-pound linebacker put together an impressive sophomore season for Punahou. The Hawaii standout would collect 71 total tackles, 18 tackles for loss and eight sacks while making plays all over the field.

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