Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa Adds Hawaiian Punch To Notre Dame Defense
Nine years ago this weekend, the nation’s No. 1 defensive recruit, Hawaiian linebacker Manti Te’o, took his official visit to Notre Dame.
It was as miserable a football weekend there ever has been for the Fighting Irish. In freezing temperatures — one that forced Te’o to later watch the game in the Guglielmino Athletics Complex — the Irish lost to 2-8 Syracuse, head coach Charlie Weis’ job status was called into question, and Te’o seemed destined to sign with USC, which was vying for the national title annually. The indefatigable efforts of Irish lead recruiter Brian Polian seemed all for naught.
Inexplicably, Te’o would sign with Notre Dame in the 11th hour and spearhead a 12-1 resurgence season as a senior.
Fast forward to last November, when the Irish capped a miserable 4-8 campaign with a 45-27 loss at USC, which would finish the season No. 3 in the country.
Taking his first official visit as a high school recruit, Ewa Beach, Hawai’i native and defensive lineman Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa was on the USC side of the field and had little knowledge about Notre Dame.
“I do recall walking down the tunnel, I was walking next to DeShone Kizer,” Tagovailoa-Amosa said this week. “ I just kept my head down and kept walking towards the USC locker room with the other recruits. My initial thought was I was going to stay at USC. To see how it is now is pretty ironic …it’s the best that I came here.”
Just like in December 2008 with Te’o, the Irish football operation was reeling, and there were numerous questions about head coach Brian Kelly’s future. However, one of the six new on-field coaching hires was Polian, who went back to his old stomping grounds in January to recruit Tagovailoa-Amosa.
“He’s a real familiar guy with the Islands,” he said of Polian. “When he comes out there he knows the slang and is talking to me in slang. It’s funny because you typically don’t hear that from any other recruiting coaches.”
Like Te’o years earlier, Tagovailoa-Amosa almost inexplicably landed at Notre Dame.
In the final month of recruiting, Tagovailoa-Amosa took official visits to prominent academic institutions such as Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, and the day before his trip to Notre Dame, he and his family visited his brother Adam, a sophomore offensive tackle at the United States Naval Academy.
The two will be on opposite sidelines this weekend — Adam saw his first action last week as a reserve in a 43-40 win versus SMU — but for a brief spell Myron thought about joining him. Yet the more he thought about it, the more he realized “I’m not really a military person.” What he did envision someday was playing in the NFL.
“Initially as I went [to Navy], they were a big interest for me,” he said. “But when I really sat back and thought about it, if I get the opportunity to go here, I won’t get the opportunity to go to the NFL, so I kind of lost interest a little bit.”
However, football prominence was hardly the deciding factor for Tagovailoa-Amosa, whose parents are both pastors and non-denominational Christians.
“My mom is the type to ask every question in the book just to make sure she knows I’m making the right decision,” Tagovailoa-Amosa said. “Just the way I was raised … we are strong-minded people … She kind of got that sense If my son comes here I know his spiritual side will still be intact.
“I’m not downing any school in they don’t have any opportunity for church, but where you have a school that incorporates church into a tradition and lifestyle in each of the students, it kind of gave my mom that confidence boost that I will be okay here.
“My faith is such an important role to me in the way I was raised. Just knowing that this is Notre Dame and everything they do they incorporate God, country, football. They got to know me and my parents really well, so I guess that’s what kind of boosted their interest.”
The first Irish freshman permitted to interview with the media this year, Tagovailoa-Amosa has joined offensive tackle Robert Hainsey as the early stalwarts in the class.
Through 10 games, Tagovailoa-Amosa’s 258 snaps (26 per game) were third to junior Jerry Tillery (534) and senior Jonathan Bonner (372) among the interior linemen, with fellow freshman Kurt Hinish next at 123. The power and technique of the 6-2 ½, 293-pound Tagovailoa-Amosa is evident, but it is his first-step explosiveness that is particularly effective.
Twice this year he has made momentum-changing stops. With Notre Dame leading only 14-10 at Boston College in the second half, the Eagles went for it on fourth-and-one at the Irish 30 — but the freshman’s penetration stopped them short and the Irish offense took over thereafter in the 49-20 win.
Against NC State, the Wolfpack had fourth-and-one at Notre Dame’s six-yard line and trailed 28-14 when Tagovailoa-Amosa knifed through again to record a one-yard loss.
“Sometimes guys just have that sense and awareness to get off blocks, and he just has a great first step,” Kelly said. “If you look back on some of the key plays that he's made this year, it's been by penetration. So one of his really unique skills is that he has that quickness off the ball.”
The physical skills of Tagovailoa-Amosa have not been a surprise to the Irish coaching staff, but how quickly he was able to mesh them with his football acumen has been.
“He had the size, he had the physicality, but can you learn our defense and apply it right away?” Kelly noted. “So that's that football IQ. That's that awareness that he took and ran with immediately when he got to camp, and that was a pleasant surprise for us.”
The soft-spoken Tagovailoa-Amosa admits he’s surprised himself somewhat.
“It’s been easier than I thought it would be,” he said. “You kind of get a sense of homesickness, and Hawaii and South Bend are like two different places in terms of weather and scenery. But I guess keeping in contact with my parents all the time really helps and knowing I have a brother on the East Coast too gives me more of a confidence boost.”
Just like it has for the Irish defense.
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