Sione Felila made the trip out to South Bend earlier this month to see Notre Dame’s primetime game against USC and the 2027 California defensive lineman left impressed.
“It went pretty good,” the 6-foot-3, 290-pounder said. “I loved the atmosphere it had and I liked the waiting. We missed out on a lot of experiences because of the rain, but it was a pretty cool experience.”
The way Felila was treated stood out to him as did the people he had a chance to hear from.
“The attention we got from the coaches was a big one and the former player panel, that was pretty cool,” he said. “They had Joe Montana and Bryant Young come out and just say how the school's a good fit for everybody.
“It meant a lot because one, they're legends and they know what they're talking about and it meant a lot because it was coming from them and they were pretty genuine.”
Felila currently has offers from Notre Dame, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Utah, BYU and Arizona.
The Oak Hills High School star spent much of his time around Notre Dame’s Director of Recruiting Advancement Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa.
“He was pretty cool,” Felila said. “It was pretty cool to hang out with a coach who's Polynesian because you don't really find that many places. I feel like it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool hanging out with him.”
He also spent time with Irish defensive line coach Al Washington and defensive line assistant Nick Sebastian.
“They were just talking about how they love my film and what kind of program they have there and the impression they had of me,” said Felila.
“I feel like they're great people. They're really genuine. They keep it straight up and I don't feel like they're going to play around with anything and keep things from you. So I feel like they're pretty good.”
Felila enjoyed watching the Irish’s 34-24 win over their rival.
“It was a pretty cool game,” he said. “Everybody was into it, all the fans were into it. I loved how even though it was raining, everybody was still hyped up with energy. I loved it.”
He was particularly impressed with the Notre Dame defensive line.
“I feel like they played great,” he said. “I love the way they stopped the run. I think they held USC to about 70 yards rushing. And for a team like that, I feel like that's a great feat.”
Felila has already been to USC, UCLA and Oregon and has a trip set to Washington next month.
He plans on keeping in contact with Notre Dame moving forward and said it’d be “a great school” to take an official visit to.
As for the most important factors to his ultimate decision, Felila pointed to relationships and development.
“I feel like just transparency on where I stand and also just the coaching. I feel like the preparation for going to the next level after college is a big thing I'm going to look for.”
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