UCLA Football Sends Local Linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa Scholarship Offer
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Just over a year removed from a major surgery, one of the top recruits in California has been officially targeted by the Bruins' new defensive staff.
Class of 2024 linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa received an offer from UCLA football, the recruit announced Friday night on Twitter. Viliamu-Asa, who had surgery to repair his ACL and meniscus in May 2021, will return to the field for his junior year at St. John Bosco (CA) this fall.
Viliamu-Asa also has offers from Arizona, Auburn, Boston College, Florida A&M, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, UNLV and USC.
Ohio State hosted Viliamu-Asa for an unofficial visit last June, and that was immediately followed up by an invite to play in the 2024 All-American Bowl. Viliamu-Asa then hit the road this past January, ending the month with consecutive visits to Texas, Texas A&M and LSU, followed by visits to USC, Auburn and Georgia in March.
April featured visits to Ohio State and Oregon, but Viliamu-Asa has yet to stop by Westwood in an official or unofficial capacity.
Viliamu-Asa played in six games for St. John Bosco his freshman year, accumulating 28 tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss and 1.5 sacks. Towards the end of the COVID-delayed campaign, he left a game with a major knee injury and missed both the end of that season and all of his sophomore year.
247Sports and Rivals both have Viliamu-Asa pegged as a four-star recruit despite the time he spent recovering from injury. According to the 247Sports Composite, Viliamu-Asa is the No. 11 recruit in California, No. 10 linebacker in his class and No. 113 overall prospect in the country.
Viliamu-Asa is ranked as the No. 1 linebacker in California by both 247Sports and Rivals.
UCLA had previously sent an offer to the No. 2 linebacker in California, Long Beach Poly's (CA) Dylan Williams, who was already committed to USC. He remains pledged to the Trojans, but the Bruins appear ready to compete for his services moving forward despite that.
Viliamu-Asa is now the only other 2024 linebacker with an offer from UCLA.
New linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr., who officially joined the staff in March, has made a major push to build out the 2023 class at the position, though. Norton earned a commitment from three-star St. John Bosco safety/linebacker hybrid Ty Lee in May, then he got one from four-star Mater Dei Catholic (CA) linebacker Tre Edwards a few weeks later.
Of the seven 2023 linebackers with offers from UCLA, six of them got those offers from Norton. The only one who didn't was Edwards.
There are two more class of 2023 St. John Bosco recruits with offers from the Bruins – five-star edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei and three-star offensive tackle Raymond Pulido. In the class of 2024, defensive backs coach Brian Norwood has already offered five-star safety Peyton Woodyard and four-star cornerback Marcelles Williams, both from St. John Bosco.
UCLA has safety Stephan Blaylock, receiver Logan Loya, linebacker JonJon Vaughns and defensive back Jake Newman on their roster from St. John Bosco – the same program that produced Josh Rosen back in 2015.
The Bruins' staff has stayed tight with the Braves in the years since, and their pursuit of Viliamu-Asa appears to be an effort to extend that pipeline further into the upcoming recruiting class.
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