'10 HI DT Sealii Epenesa (Signed to UCLA)

[exxon]

Rivals (http://colorado.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=95292#ticker)
Scout (http://hshawaii.scout.com/a.z?s=370&p=8&c=1&nid=4198374)
ESPN (http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/tracker/player?recruitId=84266&season=2010&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncf %2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fplayer%3frecruitId%3d842 66%26season%3d2010)

http://media.scout.com/media/image/70/707368.jpg

Iolani School (Honolulu, HI)

Ht: 6-foot-2
Wt: 305 lbs
Forty: 5.4 secs
Bench max: 275 pounds
Squat max: 400 pounds
Vertical: 27 inches


Rivals rating: 3*; #47 DT
Scout rating: 3*; #62 DT
ESPN rating: 3* - 76 grade; #75 DT

[Buffnik]

Of the DTs on CUs radar, Sealii is my #1 (especially after Molesi chose Oregon State today).

[Darth Snow]

We gotta have him!! That's my Alma mater!

[buffsyko]

We gotta have him!! That's my Alma mater!

Never knew you were from the Islands, lucky bastard!

[Duff Man]

I think we have a better than 50/50 shot at nabbing him.

[Buffnik]

I think we have a better than 50/50 shot at nabbing him.

Really? I hope you're right. I had thought we were a little behind UCLA for him.

[sweaty teets]

he has a lot of family in the LA area if remember correctly, and he talks a lot about that. i would put us below 50/50. getting him in for a visit is a must.

[Duff Man]

Just a hunch. I think we win out in the end. Admittedly, Hawaiian prospects can be a bit tougher to gauge than mainland prospects though.

Like our chances with Crabb and Hatchie as well.

[sweaty teets]

Just a hunch. I think we win out in the end. Admittedly, Hawaiian prospects can be a bit tougher to gauge than mainland prospects though.

Like our chances with Crabb and Hatchie as well.

i think crabb is ours to lose for sure.

[Buffnik]

Hatchie would be a great get for us. It would take a lot of the sting out of losing out on Bonnell (if we can't turn him) since both Rivals and Scout have Hatchie rated higher and he's probably a better overall athlete.

[66BUFF]

weak lifts for his size

[buffwoman526]

I love his name. TV announcers will hate it. :lol:

[Buffnik]

He's got 5 offers, so it's pretty easy to list Epenesa's Top 5: Colorado, UCLA, Texas Tech, Washington, and Hawaii.

Pretty clear it won't be Hawaii, so it's really a Top 4. UCLA has been the leader from day one, but CU has been right behind. One thing that's strongly in our favor is that the Bruins have already gotten 2 DT pledges this recruiting cycle.

P.S. Scout has updated and Sealii is now a 3*, #62 DT there. They also had a photo I was able to add to his profile. ESPN has also now rated him 3*, #69 DT (76 rating). Still waiting on Rivals to update with a rating.

[Duff Man]

Still really like our chances here.

[Buffnik]

More updates to his profile:

Rivals previously had him unrated. Now he's 3*; #47 DT

We really need a guy like Epenesa in the middle of our defense.

[buffsyko]

Have to start getting these guys.

[Duff Man]

Not looking good here. Top two of UCLA and Oregon State. We might get a visit, but it is not a certainty by any stretch.

[buffsyko]

Not looking good here. Top two of UCLA and Oregon State. We might get a visit, but it is not a certainty by any stretch.

Another awesome job of DL recruiting by bandison :rolleyes:

[Buffnik]

According to a new Scout article, CU may be out of the running for Epenesa.

"My coach at Iolani, coach (Wendell) Look, sent me a text last week that a coach from Baylor was coming," Epenesa told Scout.com late Wednesday night. "It was coach Norwood. He's from Hawaii."

Epenesa is just starting to learn more about the Bears, and there are two other schools the 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle will visit officially before he makes his final college choice. Those two schools are UCLA and Oregon State, and they both made home visits on Tuesday.

"Recruiting is going good, it's exciting," he said. "It's going to start getting busy. I'm taking trips starting next week."

First he'll visit Westwood the weekend of January 15th, followed by a trip to Corvallis the following weekend. And he told Scout.com that he just might stay on the mainland and fit in his trip to Baylor in-between his UCLA and Oregon State visits, but as of now he didn't have an exact date set.

Read on... (http://colorado.scout.com/2/935696.html)

Colorado was only mentioned among the list of schools that have offered... and by the author, not by Epenesa. :sad2:

[HotRack]

WOW! Baylor, really? That coach from Baylor must be one hell of a used car salesman, because I have a hard time seeing any kid from the islands being able to be in Waco for four years!

[Darth Snow]

****ing bull**** Iolani boy deserves better then ****ing baylor

[White_Rabbit]

Why isn't Cabral going to this guys house for an in home visit yesterday!??!

[buffsyko]

This staff is doing an atrocious job recruiting dt's. Simply horrible.

[buffaholic]

Deja Vu all over again for Syko.....

[buffsyko]

Deja Vu all over again for Syko.....

We are stuck in a time warp...

[DesertDawg526]

According to a new Scout article, CU may be out of the running for Epenesa.

\"My coach at Iolani, coach (Wendell) Look, sent me a text last week that a coach from Baylor was coming,\" Epenesa told Scout.com late Wednesday night. \"It was coach Norwood. He's from Hawaii.\"

Epenesa is just starting to learn more about the Bears, and there are two other schools the 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle will visit officially before he makes his final college choice. Those two schools are UCLA and Oregon State, and they both made home visits on Tuesday.

\"Recruiting is going good, it's exciting,\" he said. \"It's going to start getting busy. I'm taking trips starting next week.\"

First he'll visit Westwood the weekend of January 15th, followed by a trip to Corvallis the following weekend. And he told Scout.com that he just might stay on the mainland and fit in his trip to Baylor in-between his UCLA and Oregon State visits, but as of now he didn't have an exact date set.

Read on... (\"http://colorado.scout.com/2/935696.html\")

Colorado was only mentioned among the list of schools that have offered... and by the author, not by Epenesa. :sad2:

Considering he has family in L.A., I'd be shocked if he ends up anywhere else...

[buffaholic]

that is also Bandison's fault. He should move CU closer to SoCal.

[Buffnik]

Is there a chance that Epenesa's a "silent commit" and these visits are him wanting to check out other programs before making things official? I'm not feeling confident, but I haven't given up hope either. There has been some chatter that we have a silent from a DT. Hmmmmm.

[JWBUFF]

Always has

[White_Rabbit]

that is also Bandison's fault. He should move CU closer to SoCal.

This has come up a few times recently. It looks like Hawk really dropped the ball when he didn't move CU to California when he got here.

[NW Buff]

Is there a chance that Epenesa's a "silent commit" and these visits are him wanting to check out other programs before making things official? I'm not feeling confident, but I haven't given up hope either. There has been some chatter that we have a silent from a DT. Hmmmmm.

Wow, you must really be trying to raise Syko's blood pressure.

Like winning next season, I am taking nothing for granted with this staff.

[Buffnik]

Wow, you must really be trying to raise Syko's blood pressure.


It takes a village to kill a Syko. I'm just doing my small part.

Yours in Christ,
Buffnik

:smile2:

[walk]

I bet the silent is the DL from Denver or foi foi from Hawaii

[buffaholic]

It's definitely not the DL from Denver.

[Buffnik]

Epenesa has decided to be a Bruin.

[buffsyko]

Sweet. This has to be the worst staff in recruiting DT's. The rams have two 3 star dt's and we can't find one. The 2009 season was bad enough, the recruiting has cemented that hawkins is a bum and CU will continue to fall deeper into the abyss while he is still in boulder.

[buffaholic]

CSU's 3-star DT's really don't look to be anything to write home about Syko. One chose CSU over UTEP as his best offer. The other has the funniest quote I've seen in a while on why he decommitted to Northwestern and chose CSU:

"When I went to Northwestern, hardly any of them skied. I went to CSU and all the kids are skiing and things like that. I fit in there a lot better."

Hard to believe he would have been able to get into Northwestern with that statement!

Bottom line, these DT's are much like the players we are signing and bitching about on a daily basis.

[buffsyko]

CSU's 3-star DT's really don't look to be anything to write home about Syko. One chose CSU over UTEP as his best offer. The other has the funniest quote I've seen in a while on why he decommitted to Northwestern and chose CSU:

"When I went to Northwestern, hardly any of them skied. I went to CSU and all the kids are skiing and things like that. I fit in there a lot better."

Hard to believe he would have been able to get into Northwestern with that statement!

Bottom line, these DT's are much like the players we are signing and bitching about on a daily basis.

Oh, so OUR 3 stars are better than everyone else, got it. Yeah, I wouldn't want kids out of texas or florida either, i'd rather have recruits who we are beating san jose state for and eastern washington. BTW, I'll take two 3 star dt's, especially one from texas over ZERO.

[buffaholic]

If we keep these two, I think they will be key:

Uzo-Diribe - DE (tripped to Arizona and UCLA). He's also pretty new to football, having been a hoop guy.
Poston - DE, likely will move to DT right away (offers from Baylor, GA Tech, AZ, Duke, KSU, Houston, Arizona)

I like these two about the best of anyone coming in.

Sure - I think we need another DT here. But either of those two at CSU aren't exactly drawing attention from anywhere much. Given we have two Jr's and two So's who will see the playing time for the next 2 years, we need to bring in guys with high upside. Poston has way more of that than either of these two guys going to CSU. At some point you take the best athlete's available. We are forced to take some RBs and TE's right now who will need to play right away. We are not in that position at DT. Still hope we find 1 more with some upside.

[Duff Man]

I am not happy about the DT recruiting this cycle, but I am willing to give the coaching staff a pass. But it means we HAVE to take at least two in 2011. There will not be any excuses at that point. The last thing we need to have happen is where we have another situation of four freshmen (either redshirt or true) seeing playing time in one area like we saw on the DL this past season.

[Buffnik]

Oh, so OUR 3 stars are better than everyone else, got it.

He said that those guys are "much like the players we are signing and bitching about".

I agree with wanting DTs this cycle. That's been disappointing. But I highly doubt you'd be praising CU if we had accepted verbals from the 2 DTs CSU got.

[buffsyko]

He said that those guys are "much like the players we are signing and bitching about".

I agree with wanting DTs this cycle. That's been disappointing. But I highly doubt you'd be praising CU if we had accepted verbals from the 2 DTs CSU got.

How the hell do you know if i'd be praising them or not. Buffaholic doesn't mind moving a 225-230 de to dt from texas but wouldn't want a legit DT from texas? We have zero dt's to this point, I'll take a "diamond in the rough" ,the rest of the class is. Didn't csu beat us in our house last year? You guys laugh at their recruits and act like ours are so much better. They have more speed, and have sopmehow managed to get a 4 star qb and 2 dt's, something we struggle to do every year under hawk. But hey, we'll see.

[buffsyko]

I am not happy about the DT recruiting this cycle, but I am willing to give the coaching staff a pass. But it means we HAVE to take at least two in 2011. There will not be any excuses at that point. The last thing we need to have happen is where we have another situation of four freshmen (either redshirt or true) seeing playing time in one area like we saw on the DL this past season.

We would need more than two for 2011 class if we sign none this class imho.

[BuffInVA]

We would need more than two for 2011 class if we sign none this class imho.

I think Poston makes 1 for this class.

[Buffnik]

How the hell do you know if i'd be praising them or not. Buffaholic doesn't mind moving a 225-230 de to dt from texas but wouldn't want a legit DT from texas? We have zero dt's to this point, I'll take a "diamond in the rough" ,the rest of the class is. Didn't csu beat us in our house last year? You guys laugh at their recruits and act like ours are so much better. They have more speed, and have sopmehow managed to get a 4 star qb and 2 dt's, something we struggle to do every year under hawk. But hey, we'll see.

I said that "I doubt". Where did I claim I "knew" what your opinion would be?

That's twice now that you've mis-represented what people have said in this thread.

And I don't know how "legit" the DT from Texas is. Scout didn't rate him, ESPN has him as a low 2* DE and Rivals considered him a Center well into the Fall (until CSU said they were recruiting him for the DL). He'll probably end up being a fine player for CSU and I'm happy for the kid that he's got a D1 opportunity, but I'm certainly not jealous of CSU on this one.

[buffaholic]

CSU beat us on our home field, but not because they have had better recruits. I will say their upper class is probably better and deeper than CU's. But to try to make a point about our DT recruiting using the fact that they took 2 guys that are likely recruited just doesn't support the argument. I'd like to see one more DT this class.

Also, I didn't move Poston to DT, I'm afraid I'm not that astute. It has been posted on several boards several times that programs project him as a DT. I'll stand behind Hypolite (FB), Pericek (LB/TE) as good examples of guys that didn't list DT as their position on the recruiting boards. It was pretty obvious when both of those started working with the DL from day 1 that maybe the staff(s) here knew something ahead of time.

[buffaholic]

Poston will redshirt for sure this year, and get to bulk up like Pericek did. He's a lot closer to a DT frame now than Pericek was for sure at this stage. Also have seen it posted that Obi has been moved to DT and asked to put on some pounds.

[BehindEnemyLines]

Poston will redshirt for sure this year, and get to bulk up like Pericek did. He's a lot closer to a DT frame now than Pericek was for sure at this stage. Also have seen it posted that Obi has been moved to DT and asked to put on some pounds.

That's probably a reaaly good move for Obi.

[buffsyko]

CSU beat us on our home field, but not because they have had better recruits. I will say their upper class is probably better and deeper than CU's. But to try to make a point about our DT recruiting using the fact that they took 2 guys that are likely recruited just doesn't support the argument. I'd like to see one more DT this class.

Also, I didn't move Poston to DT, I'm afraid I'm not that astute. It has been posted on several boards several times that programs project him as a DT. I'll stand behind Hypolite (FB), Pericek (LB/TE) as good examples of guys that didn't list DT as their position on the recruiting boards. It was pretty obvious when both of those started working with the DL from day 1 that maybe the staff(s) here knew something ahead of time.

I'd say their OL was better and their DL. In case you missed it they dominated us on both sides of the ball. But hey, you thought 2009 was going to be a great year and your obviously right that we can count on anyone stepping into a DT role so ....

If our recruits are so much better, then how in the hell are we losing at home to csu? Has to be coaching then buffaholic so, no matter what recruits we get, hawk and the boise boys cant develop the players?

Obi moving to DT excites who? Goree? Bonsu,cunningham and pericek are fine, we need depth.

[JimmyBuff]

Anyone who believes we are severely more talented than CSU is obviously drinking the kool-aid.. Their OL crushed us at the point of attack.. Seniors, Sophomores, high school freshman, I don't care what class they were, it was a complete ass whooping and we were lucky we weren't down by about 35 in the 1st half since they missed about two wide open TD receptions.


There is no such thing as well we have 4 players that are on the DL so its not important to land any DT's this year.. The good programs don't operate like that. You have to continue to add to your depth year after year.. We are not doing that under Talkins.

[buffaholic]

Anyone who believes we are severely more talented than CSU is obviously drinking the kool-aid..

They certainly outplayed us in one game. They weren't very good though after that. They did beat Weber State 2 weeks later when Weber State fumbled the ball setting up the short game winning field goal.... CU's line held up pretty good against a lot of competition better than CSU faced.

I can't disagree with Syko in that the coaching fell short.

If you would read my post though, I said up front I'd like to see us get 1 more guy for DL this year. But it's not that critical. We need guys who can develop into B12 All conference guys, not the guys CSU is plugging in there. If that means waiting a year, that's fine by me. It's not like any recruits with Pac-10 or B12 offers of note are begging to come here right now. Our recruiting is where it's at - fantasizing about what could have been is pointless.

[BuffInVA]

[QUOTE=JimmyBuff;608433]Anyone who believes we are severely more talented than CSU is obviously drinking the kool-aid.. QUOTE]


We are "severely more talented" the coaching on the other hand...

[zbuff]

I'd say their OL was better and their DL. In case you missed it they dominated us on both sides of the ball. But hey, you thought 2009 was going to be a great year and your obviously right that we can count on anyone stepping into a DT role so ....

If our recruits are so much better, then how in the hell are we losing at home to csu? Has to be coaching then buffaholic so, no matter what recruits we get, hawk and the boise boys cant develop the players?

Obi moving to DT excites who? Goree? Bonsu,cunningham and pericek are fine, we need depth.

The saddest truth. But this could be jumping to conclusions, we only have four years of evidence.

[BehindEnemyLines]

.....
Obi moving to DT excites who? Goree? Bonsu,cunningham and pericek are fine, we need depth.

The only negative to Obi moving inside is that it gives us 3 dt's in the same class (jr's) -- Cunningham, Goree, and now Obi. Conrad hasn't made a splash on the outside, so perhaps this move will be more in line with his skills and abilities.

It does, however, highlight a position of need in this recruiting class. For arguments sake, anyone recruited to play dt in this cycle will prolly redshirt. Then, in '11 as a r/s frosh, would be competing against 3 sr's and 2 jr's. I'm not sure I like the gap in classes. From the onset of this cycle, I've felt that CB and DT were the most pressing needs, especially since both usually require time to truelly develop. Even if Poston is moved inside, another DT recruit (even a project) is needed this time around.

Can we hope the proverbial rabbit emerges from the hat?

[Buffnik]

I would suspect that we'll see a number of JUCOs in the 2012 class (after the 2011 season and the end of eligibility for our huge junior class). It's the only way to balance the numbers back out. DT will be a prime spot for that.

[buffsyko]

I would suspect that we'll see a number of JUCOs in the 2012 class (after the 2011 season and the end of eligibility for our huge junior class). It's the only way to balance the numbers back out. DT will be a prime spot for that.

We don't want to rely on juco's in 2012, more times than not, it doesn't work out at all. Is nuckols going to come back to cu?

[Buffnik]

We don't want to rely on juco's in 2012, more times than not, it doesn't work out at all. Is nuckols going to come back to cu?

Nuckols is going to a JUCO with a plan to get himself eligible in a year. He said he is open to CU.

Take this FWIW. I believe it's all Facebook reporting (including that he supposedly "Friended" Kasa).

[White_Rabbit]

:lol: really? I thought he was at Seton Hall and made some post on twitter(?) saying he won't be at CU and it was the coaches fault.

[buffsyko]

:lol: really? I thought he was at Seton Hall and made some post on twitter(?) saying he won't be at CU and it was the coaches fault.

Not sure but I think that was the simon kid....

[buff4bcs1985]

no it was nuckols who said ask your coaches

[buffsyko]

no it was nuckols who said ask your coaches

I was hoping it was the OL and not the DT that twittered that.....I wouldn't ask our coaches anything

[buffaholic]

and now Nuckols is talking about transferring to a Juco with the hopes of getting into CU, or so the legend goes...... I'd prefer my life not ride on every word an 18 year old says on Twitter or Facebook.

[buffsyko]

and now Nuckols is talking about transferring to a Juco with the hopes of getting into CU, or so the legend goes...... I'd prefer my life not ride on every word an 18 year old says on Twitter or Facebook.

I agree, I don't twitter or facebook, and never will.