UH football preview: Linebackers

University of Hawaii linebacker Isaiah Tufaga has been surfing ever since he could walk.

He also played football and basketball growing up — he wanted to try baseball and his dad said no — but surfing is what has been “passed down.”

“My grandpa surfs, and so do all my cousins,” the Laie native said. “My family is a water family, and we love to be around the ocean.”

Living thirty minutes from the North Shore with “some of the best waves in the world,” as Tufaga puts it, certainly makes it convenient for those looking to catch a wave, but Laie is also a tight-knit community that Tufaga credits for his development as both a player and a person.

“Everybody knows everybody. It’s just one community that is like a big family,” Tufaga said. “Honestly, growing up over there taught me so much about not only myself, but others, and it really made me who I am today.”

“The people, they’re loving, they’re caring, but they’re also hard on us. That part of being hard on us and disciplining us from a young age really helped grow a lot of athletes to come out of that place. I mean, you look at the kids that play at Kahuku, the way they’re performing, and the way they act on and off the field. They do it to a tee and they’re all good kids.”

Tufaga prepped at Saint Louis before playing his freshman season of college football at Oregon State. He transferred back to UH prior to the start of the 2019 season, one of the focal points being to spend more time with his family.

“That’s one of the main reasons why I came home,” he said. “Who knows? After I’m done here, I could move away or stay here.”

Tufaga is set to graduate in the fall with a degree in human development and family studies. He was scheduled to graduate this past summer, but the course he needed to complete his degree dropped its summer session class. That course is the only one on his schedule this semester, which means there is potentially some free time.

“Spend time with my family and go to the beach as usual, just like every local boy,” he said about his free time right now. “At the same time, put in some extra work, of course.”

Tufaga has played every game the Rainbow Warriors have played over the past two seasons — he sat out 2019 due to the NCAA’s transfer rule, recording 54 total tackles over 22 games played. Although this will be his fourth year playing college football and fifth in college, he has an extra year of eligibility stemming from the COVID-19 year the NCAA granted to players.

Diego Betancourt, 6-1, 180, Fr., Levittown, Puerto Rico

Demarii Blanks, 6-0, 240, Jr., Belmont, Calif.

Kamalu DeBlake, 5-9, 225, Fr., Honolulu

Kila Kamakawiwoole, 6-0, 230, Jr., Honolulu

Kruze Keanu, 5-11, 205, Fr., Kaaawa, Hawaii

Noah Kema, 6-2, 225, Jr., Lawrence, Kan.

Penei Pavihi, 6-3, 245, Sr., Tafuna, American Samoa

Jalen Smith, 6-0, 210, So., Bakersfield, Calif.

Logan Taylor, 6-1, 215, Sr., Harbor City, Calif.

Isaiah Tufaga, 6-1, 230, Sr., Laie, Hawaii

D.J. Utu, 6-0, 205, Fr., Honolulu

Riley Wilson, 6-2, 210, So., Prosper, Texas

Junior college transfers Demarii Blanks, Noah Kema, and Jalen Smith headline the newcomers in the linebacker room for the Rainbow Warriors, who lost team captain and last season’s top tackler Darius Muasau to UCLA via the transfer portal. Penei Pavihi and Isaiah Tufaga, the top-two returning tacklers at linebacker from last season, are the projected first-team starters in UH’s 4–2–5 base defense based on team drills in fall camp, with Pavihi at the strong side and Tufaga on the weak side. Kema and Logan Taylor are the linebackers who have received the most reps with the second team.