Notre Dame is predicted to miss out on a top-100 defender after a tremendous official visit to a Big Ten school
Notre Dame is expected to host a top-75 linebacker for an OV in less than two weeks. Things appear to be trending away from the Irish.
The official visit season has officially begun, but things won’t kick off for Notre Dame football for a couple of weeks. From now until head coach Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish begin welcoming 2027 recruiting targets to South Bend on June 9, it is about trying to keep recruitments open until they make their way to campus. That strategy will, unfortunately, lead to some losses at times.
It appears that some bad news may be on the horizon with 2027 Mililani (Hawaii) High School linebacker Toa Satele, who officially visited Oregon this past weekend. Despite never visiting South Bend before, Satele included the Fighting Irish in his top four schools list a couple of weeks ago. They were joined by the Ducks, Texas, and Cal in that top group.
As a top-four school, Notre Dame fans were intrigued to see where things go with the top-100 defender, especially with his official visit scheduled for June 9-11. Coming off that trip to Eugene, however, there appears to be a lot of momentum for Oregon. So much so that Rivals national recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong has logged a prediction for Satele to land with the Ducks.
Without a commitment date scheduled, it will be interesting to see what happens with Satele. Is this merely an early feeling for Wiltfong, or is it more? If the Hawaii native ends up making his official visit to Notre Dame, then they clearly still have a chance. In the wonderful world of recruiting, things happen fast, so it’ll be interesting to see if he still goes through with his other three official visits or not.
Depending on what happens with Satele, five-star Kaden Henderson and Chicagoland native Roman Igwebuike will continue to be the two top linebacker targets to keep a close eye on. New linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary will need a strong finish to add talent around Irish commit Amarii Irvin.
Toa Satele’s recruiting background
Satele is considered to be a four-star and a top-75 player by each of the major recruiting platforms right now. The 247 Sports Composite ranking has him pegged as the No. 63 overall player, the No. 4 linebacker, and the No. 1 player from the state of Hawaii for the 2027 recruiting class.
Just like his recruiting rankings, the offer list for Satele is extremely impressive. Some of his top offers currently include the Fighting Irish, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas, Michigan, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Penn State, Miami, USC, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah, Washington, Arkansas, Arizona State, UCLA, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Arizona, BYU, SMU, Oregon State, UCF, Cal, and Washington State, among others.
As a junior in 2025, Satele put together a strong season for Mililani. The 6-3, 200-pound linebacker managed to collect 40 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.