Four-star linebacker Liona Lefau commits to Texas

BOOM! Lefau chose Texas over Oregon, Utah, BYU, USC and others.

Texas picked up a huge commitment from Liona Lefau on Saturday evening. In Lefau, Texas brings in one of the top linebackers in the country.

The highly regarded player from Kahuku, Hawaii looks the part. Lefau displayed excellent acceleration and speed as a pass rusher paired with hard hitting ability.

While many aren’t used to six-foot 210-pound linebackers, players like Lefau are ideal for the athletic demands of modern college football.

After difficulty recruiting linebackers from high school and through the portal, this is a huge victory for Texas linebacker coach Jeff Choate. Lefau could be a great fit as an outside linebacker in Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense. He surely possesses some of the traits Pete Kwiatkowski looked for as defensive coordinator for the Washington Huskies.

Lefau chose Texas over Oregon, Utah, BYU, and USC among other offers. He is the No. 16 linebacker in the country and the top player in Hawaii according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

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Longtime Notre Dame assistant to join Brian Kelly at LSU

How much will be missed: A ton? Some? Not at all?

Brian Polian, Notre Dame’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator appears to be headed to join Brian Kelly at LSU.  Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports and The Athletic presented the news on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

As Feldman points out, Polian has experience from the time he spent at Texas A&M, albeit for just one season in 2012.  There a few other things about losing Polian that interest me the most from Notre Dame’s perspective.

As has been well-discussed by many, Marcus Freeman brings no head coaching experience to his new role.  That’s not to say it’ll be the Achilles heal to his ultimate success at Notre Dame, but one would think an assistant with head coaching experience would be important for his first staff.

Losing Polian, who was Nevada’s head coach from 2013-2016, certainly doesn’t answer that question.  Offensive line coach Jeff Quinn, who we’re still unsure the future of, is the only other current assistant with such experience as he was Buffalo’s head coach from 2010-2014.

Next:  Polian’s Rainbow (Hawaii) Connection