BREAKING: Tagovailoa-Amosa Headed to South Bend

2017 Hawaii defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa visited Notre Dame last week and a week later has committed to the Fighting Irish. The 6-foot-3, 265-pounder is an extremely welcomed addition to the recruiting class and provides some much-needed depth along the defensive line.

Notre Dame laid out the red carpet for the four-star prospect on his official visit, but it was the ‘Aloha Spirit’ that made the difference.

“Notre Dame is like the people back home,” stated Tuli Amosa, the father of the defensive end. “The people are very friendly. Most of the people we came across greeted us with a ‘Hello’ and it felt very much like home.

“There are just some places that people mind their own business and we got a chance to have a good interaction with whoever we came across.”

Notre Dame making Tagovailoa-Amosa feel important was also a big factor in landing him. The family got to meet with Jack Swarbrick and Father John Jenkins during their visit, but Brian Kelly also made numerous appearances throughout the trip.

Brian Polian deserves credit as he flew out to Hawaii to visit with the family prior to the official visit.

Tagovailoa-Amosa also took official visits to USC, Georgia Tech, Navy and Vanderbilt. His brother plays at Navy, so they were in the mix a bit, but in the end, it came down to the Commodores and the Irish.

“If you want to look at it to try to get to the next level of football, you want to look at the bigger schools,” Pastor Amosa told ISD.

“Vanderbilt is an SEC school, they have great competition and Notre Dame and its history, so it came down to that. Not taking away anything from Navy, USC or Georgia Tech because all of the visits there were great and they’re great schools academically.”

It was up to Tagovailoa-Amosa himself to decide between Notre Dame and Vanderbilt and the deciding factor was the comfort level in South Bend.

Tagovailoa-Amosa joins Darnell Ewell, Kurt Hinish and Jonathon MacCollister as Notre Dame’s defensive line commits in the 2017 class.

His family is proud to see where he's taken himself.

“Before we even got to this spot, I shared with him how proud me and my wife are of him," Pastor Amosa said. "He came a long way, even from last year, in comparison to how different of a player he was this year. He was more focused. We saw the potential in the end and we really went after that potential. The sky is the limit. This is only the beginning for Myron. We tried to instill that in his mindset, that he could excel at anything and he could be as great as he wants to be.

“I tell him, ‘I’m so proud of you and thank you for taking me on the ride with these recruiting trips.’ We’re very proud.”