Allen, Garcia-Williams, Lakalaka, and Taiulu, and Fonua

[Sportsbow]

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DEJON ALLEN OL/DE, 6-3, 265 lbs. (4.9 40 yd dash)
(Dominguez HS - Compton, CA)
(Committed to UH)
(Turned down offers from Arizona, Arizona St, Boise St, New Mexico, NMSU, Northern Arizona, SDSU, SMU, UCLA, Utah, and Washington.)

(Allen has decommitted to Arizona State.)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6grYdCERDI

Warrior Beat: http://warriorbeat.staradvertiserblogs. ... ting-game/

ASUDevilscom twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ASUDevilscom/stat ... 1894160385

Greg Biggins twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/GregBiggins/statu ... 9764405249

ESPN.com profile: (74 rating) http://espn.go.com/college-sports/footb ... ejon-allen

Rivals.com profile: (3-stars) http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/r ... len-124293

Rivals.com article: http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/co ... ID=1320341

Scout.com profile: (3-stars) http://hawaii.scout.com/a.z?s=219&p=8&c=1&nid=5422698

Scout.com article: http://recruiting.scout.com/2/1149935.html

247.com profile: (3-stars) http://247sports.com/Player/Dejon-Allen-11070

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BENETTON "BENNY" FONUA LB, 6-1, 220 lbs. (4.6 40 yd dash)
(Kahuku HS - Kahuku, HI)
(Committed to UH)
(Turned down offers from Montana and Utah St.)

(Was named by the Star Advertiser's All-State Defensive Player of the Year this past season.)
http://www.staradvertiser.com/sportspre ... =135818513

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bFGx_xB ... r_embedded

Star Advertiser: http://www.staradvertiser.com/sportspre ... =137371743

Maxpreps.com profile: http://www.maxpreps.com/athletes/e6gXMc ... -fonua.htm

Scout.com profile: (2-stars) http://hawaii.scout.com/a.z?s=219&p=8&c=1&nid=5056861

247.com profile: (2-stars) http://247sports.com/Player/Bennetton-Fonua-17950

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JERROL GARCIA-WILLIAMS ATH, 6-2, 215 lbs. (4.7 40 yd dash)
(Palo Verde HS - Las Vegas, NV)
(Committed to UH)
(Turned down offers from Southern Utah and UNLV.)

Video: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/350954/jerr ... a-williams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVaf4FqKYZU

Warrior Beat: http://warriorbeat.staradvertiserblogs. ... ting-game/

Tristan Aird twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tristanaird/statu ... 8662553601

nevadapreps.com: http://www.nevadapreps.com/RECRUITING-P ... 32653.html

Rivals.com profile: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/r ... ams-123582

Scout.com profile: (2-stars) http://hsnevada.scout.com/a.z?s=161&p=8&c=1&nid=5729553

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STEVEN LAKALAKA RB, 5-10, 200 lbs.
(Punahou School - Honolulu, HI)
(Committed to UH)
(Turned down offers from UCLA.)

(Decommitted from UCLA.)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMig8G3ucI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su7X79GenTw

Rivals.com profile: (3-stars) http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/r ... aka-102724

Scout.com profile: (3-stars) http://ucla.scout.com/a.z?s=12&p=8&c=1&nid=5044006

247.com profile: (3-stars) http://247sports.com/Player/Steven-Lakalaka-12841

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TAYLOR TALIULU S, 5-11, 175 lbs.
(Kamehameha School - Honolulu, HI)
(Committed to UH)
(Turned down offers from Idaho and Washington St.)

(Decommitted from Washington St.)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arQdpZX3Lmk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aPR7GVQpZo

ESPN.com profile: (71 rating) http://espn.go.com/college-sports/footb ... or-taliulu

Rivals.com profile: (2-stars) http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruit ... ulu-129437

Scout.com profile: (3-stars) http://washingtonstate.scout.com/a.z?s= ... id=5681440

247.com profile: (3-stars) http://247sports.com/Player/Taylor-Taliulu-14539

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[Kelii_808]

Bravo NC and staff for these commits, keeping talent home

[EITSwarrior]

If true great, but I'll wait for LOI day to celebrate.

[madeinhawaii]

Tsai made it official for Lakalaka and Taliuli with a blog update...

In statement-making moves, running back Steven Lakalaka of Punahou School and safety Taylor Taliuli of Kamehameha Schools "de-committed" on pledges to Pac-12 schools to accept scholarship offers from the Warriors.

Lakalaka had made a commitment to UCLA; Taliuli was set to go to Washington State.

Both told the Warrior Beat tonight they wanted to be part of a new tradition at UH. They said they will sign with the Warriors on Wednesday.

http://warriorbeat.staradvertiserblogs. ... /#comments

[Grinch]

Awesome! I'm stoked, ESP w Fonua!

[Urijah]

Wow pretty stoked at this recruiting class, and since I'm a newb, I gotta ask, but how does this recruiting class compare to the past 10 years recruiting classes??

[al]

four more tba

[kalilwayne]

Any hints Al?

[SmugDude]

Wow pretty stoked at this recruiting class, and since I'm a newb, I gotta ask, but how does this recruiting class compare to the past 10 years recruiting classes??

Here's a look at recent classes:

Class of 2011 http://mobile.sportshawaii.com/sh/viewt ... =3&t=35069
Class of 2010 viewtopic.php?t=26663
Class of 2009 viewtopic.php?t=16674
Class of 2008 viewtopic.php?t=13462

That said, I believe the best class we've had in the last 10 years, was the 2005 class that brought us Colt, Abe Eliminian, Sol Leonard, Brashton Satele, Davone Bess, Laupepe Letuli, etc

As for post JJ classes, the 2011 class looks to have some potential as there was a lot of speed recruited. However, given the change in offense it's really unclear how many of the offensive recruits will deliver. But, I do like Trevor Davis, Jared Leaf, and Will Gregory for starters and Mike Edwards and Brian Clay will be fixtures on the D for a while.

Had it not been for so many academic casualties the 2010 class looked really solid. As that one included what will be the core of our OL for the next few years with Kody Afusia, David Lefotu, & Sean Shigematsu and still contains some very interesting players like Desmond Dean, Beau Yap & Samson Aguay.

The 2009, class was a big improvement on 2008 as you had key players like Alex Green, Aaron Brown, Billy Ray Stutzman, and Chauncy Makainia. That said, if you look through it the class was very thin on total contributors thus far.

The 2008 class, with the exception of Art Laurel, Haku Correa & Geordon Hanohano was largely a bust class as that was a JC heavy class and one that didn't net us a ton of long term players largely because Mac was hired late in the recruiting process and JJ didn't really recruit hard that year. As a result, if you look at our roster we won't have very many seniors year.

So while the this class hasn't yet put ink to LOI I think this will be easily better than Mac's 2008 class and an improvement on Mac's 2009 class, but I don't think it will top the 2010 class which was Mac's best (IMHO). As Kiha Sai, Benny Fonua, Lakalaka, Dejon Allen & Clark Evans could all be impact players by the time it's said and done. And beyond them there are definitely players with high potential, but it'd be hard to really say conclusively that it's better than 2010 or possibly even 2011.

Just my take.

[Kelii_808]

Just have to wait and see a few years from now

[madeinhawaii]

In the future when Lakalaka makes a good run with the ball, maybe the band can do the Tina Turner version of "I want to take you higher" and really emphasize the "Boom Shaka Lakalaka.. Boom Shaka la!" Just hit that falling musical rift ...and let everyone scream it out...

Link

[SundayJam]

Wow pretty stoked at this recruiting class, and since I'm a newb, I gotta ask, but how does this recruiting class compare to the past 10 years recruiting classes??

Here's a look at recent classes:

Class of 2011 http://mobile.sportshawaii.com/sh/viewt ... =3&t=35069
Class of 2010 viewtopic.php?t=26663
Class of 2009 viewtopic.php?t=16674
Class of 2008 viewtopic.php?t=13462

That said, I believe the best class we've had in the last 10 years, was the 2005 class that brought us Colt, Abe Eliminian, Sol Leonard, Brashton Satele, Davone Bess, Laupepe Letuli, etc

As for post JJ classes, the 2011 class looks to have some potential as there was a lot of speed recruited. However, given the change in offense it's really unclear how many of the offensive recruits will deliver. But, I do like Trevor Davis, Jared Leaf, and Will Gregory for starters and Mike Edwards and Brian Clay will be fixtures on the D for a while.

Had it not been for so many academic casualties the 2010 class looked really solid. As that one included what will be the core of our OL for the next few years with Kody Afusia, David Lefotu, & Sean Shigematsu and still contains some very interesting players like Desmond Dean, Beau Yap & Samson Aguay.

The 2009, class was a big improvement on 2008 as you had key players like Alex Green, Aaron Brown, Billy Ray Stutzman, and Chauncy Makainia. That said, if you look through it the class was very thin on total contributors thus far.

The 2008 class, with the exception of Art Laurel, Haku Correa & Geordon Hanohano was largely a bust class as that was a JC heavy class and one that didn't net us a ton of long term players largely because Mac was hired late in the recruiting process and JJ didn't really recruit hard that year. As a result, if you look at our roster we won't have very many seniors year.

So while the this class hasn't yet put ink to LOI I think this will be easily better than Mac's 2008 class and an improvement on Mac's 2009 class, but I don't think it will top the 2010 class which was Mac's best (IMHO). As Kiha Sai, Benny Fonua, Lakalaka, Dejon Allen & Clark Evans could all be impact players by the time it's said and done. And beyond them there are definitely players with high potential, but it'd be hard to really say conclusively that it's better than 2010 or possibly even 2011.

Just my take.

Pai Pai Falemalu and Alema Tachebana are worth mentioning...Rodney Bradley also. Outside of Alex Greene, Sterling Jackson and Joey Iosefa are the best running backs recruited ever. Zach Masch, Vaughn Meatoga....Siaki Cravens...John Hardy-Tuliau.

Mack was a gifted recruiter. I'll concede the 'old-man' issues to the dissenters...i.e. he couldn't remember a given recruit's name...yada, yada, yada.

Dick Tomey was another gifted recruiter for Hawaii.

[palolo cruza]

Back in my day- The Kaimuki Bulldogs had two bruisers- impossible to bring down- (In fact a friend of mine got a concussion from going for their thighs)- They were the 'twin manus' Manu Vea and Manu Lakalaka. Manu Lakalaka was about 5'9" at least 230 and had speed too-- I'm wondering if Steven is related to him? Manu was a great athlete and a great person! I heard he passed- RIP brother! and welcome Steven!

[truewarriorfan]

I'm very excited about this class turning out to be a good one. Now if we can get Bostek and Fiso the future will be very bright. But I don't want to get to excited the INK still needs to touch the paper. So we shall see.

[letsgobows]

nice scoop up from this weekend. hopefully we can add Fiso and Brostek too!