College football: Hawaii lands 18 on National Signing Day

At his introductory press conference, Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich equated the University of Hawaii program to Pride Rock in the Disney classic the Lion King.

“We were great once, we can be great again. We are all Simba,” Rolovich said.

After just a few months on the job, Rolovich has officially added a few more players to his pack to help protect Pride Rock. The first year coach announced 18 signees on National Signing Day on Wednesday.

Among the 18 are 16 high school seniors, one junior college transfer, and one FBS transfer. Seven of the signees are listed as offensive players, nine as defensive, and two as athletes. Among the position breakdown are three cornerbacks, three offensive linemen, two athletes, two wide receivers, two linebackers, two defensive linemen, two safeties, one quarterback, and one running back. The signees represent four states — seven from California, five from Hawaii, and one each from Nevada and Washington — as well as two countries in the three future players from American Samoa and one from Australia.

“This is an outstanding class, built on proven winners from championship programs and local recruiting,” Rolovich said. “We also opened up pipelines with Australia and American Samoa, places where we want to continue to recruit. We signed 16 high school seniors with the intention of building a foundation of stability and we started at the line of scrimmage with offensive and defensive linemen. We covered a lot of ground in the position groups and to do it in a condensed amount of time, is a testament to the staff.”

Local recruiting was a top priority for the coaching staff. The Warriors snagged the state’s defensive player of the year in Keala Santiago from HHSAA Division I champion Kahuku and consensus all-state wide receiver Kalakaua Timoteo from Mililani. Both were among the state’s top prospects.

In addition, two highly regarded prospects in Leilehua defensive lineman Netane Muti and Iolani offensive lineman Josh Hauani‘o also inked with UH along with Silverado (Nevada) High School linebacker Jeremiah Pritchard, originally of American Samoa who also attended Farrington for one year.

UH beat out several Pac-12 schools for Norte Vista (California) High School’s Freddie Holly, the nation’s 19th ranked running back and cornerback Mykal Tolliver of St. John Bosco (California). Cole McDonald out of Sonora (California) was a dual-threat quarterback who threw for 2,313 yards and 19 touchdowns and rushed for 1,091 yards and 10 scores as a senior.

Linebacker Ikem Okeke, of national power Bishop Gorman (Nev.) in Las Vegas, was rated as the 10th-best outside linebacker in the West region. Washington power Ballard’s Davine Tullis, was the Seattle metro 3A offensive player of the year at quarterback but was recruited as an athlete.

Wide receiver Marcus Armstrong-Brown of Diablo Valley (California) was a top-ranked JUCO receiver, who caught 102 passes and 20 touchdowns in two seasons at Diablo. Offensive lineman Kingjames Taylor was a two-way player at Narbonne (California) High School, while defensive back Eugene Ford was a first-team all-city selection, who played both cornerback and wide receiver at University (California) High School in Los Angeles.

Australian rugby player Max Hendrie was one of the nation’s first signees, submitting his paperwork on Tuesday due to the international dateline. Two other prospects from American Samoa signed with UH, defensive back Scheyenne Sanitoa and defensive lineman Viane Moala, one of the country’s top linemen.

UCLA transfer offensive lineman Fred Ulu-Perry and Upland’s (California) Zach Wilson were mid-year enrollees and are also part of the 2016 signing class. Ulu-Perry was a four-star recruit out of Saint Louis in 2015 while Wilson attended Mt. Sac College last year but did not play football.