LB Maninoa Tufono commits to USC football recruiting class of 2019

Four-star linebacker Maninoa Tufono announced his commitment to USC football on Monday, joining the Trojans 2019 recruiting class.

USC football’s recruiting efforts kept rolling on Monday with yet another commitment, the third in four days as Punahou High School linebacker Maninoa joined in the recruiting parade.

Maninoa announced his commitment to the Trojans via a video on Twitter, picking the cardinal and gold over UCLA, Texas, Washington and LSU.

A 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker prospect, Maninoa ranks 151st among all players in the class of 2019, per the 247Sports composite. He is the sixth-best inside linebacker on the board and the third-best player coming out of Hawaii.

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As a junior in 2017, he had 88 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles.

USC’s linebacker recruiting has been off the charts lately, picking up an elite class of linebackers in 2018. The Trojans added five-star Palaie Gaoteote and four-stars Solomon Tuliaupupu and Raymond Scott for the inside places while also picking up three more four-star prospects for the outside spots.

As a result, the linebacker corps looks quite crowded now, despite the departure of Tayler Katoa for his LDS Mission. The impending graduation of Cameron Smith and the NFL eligibility of John Houston will open doors for young players to start in the next couple of years, but competition will be fierce between the 2018 freshmen and more established players like Jordan Iosefa and Levi Jones.

Maninoa will only add to that crowd and he won’t be alone with three-star Stanley Taufoou already committed as a second inside linebacker for 2019. At USC though, the more competition the merrier.

The Trojans 2019 class is now 12-strong and slowly but surely climbing up the recruiting ranks with headliners like four-star safety Chris Steel and four-star offensive lineman Jason Rodriguez.

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This latest commitment comes on the back of Friday’s pledge from four-star tight end Jude Wolfe. On top of that, on Sunday USC added a commitment from five-star kicker Parker Lewis for the class of 2020.