Liona Lefau breaks down his decision to commit to Texas

For the first time in the history of the program, the Texas Longhorns have dipped into Hawaii to land a football prospect. Kahuku (HI) linebacker Liona Lefau, who visited Texas earlier this month, announced on Saturday that he had given Texas a verbal commitment.

Lefau chose the Longhorns over Utah and Oregon and said he’s ready to start something new in Austin as the first Hawaiian player in Texas’s history.

“It was a tough decision. I had good relationships with all the coaches at all three schools,” Lefau said. “Me and my parents have a good relationship with coach (Jeff) Choate and Jake Langi (at Texas). That was a big factor in it.

“They have really good resources to everything, have good football, good education. They have everything I need to keep my body right. As well as me going there, I could be the first of something. I could make history, start a Hawaii to Texas pipeline. I’m the first. That was big for me to blaze my own path and do something different.”

On consecutive weekends in June, Lefau took official visits to Utah, Texas and Oregon. All three programs presented terrific opportunities, he said, but Texas just felt right.

“It was really close. Every school offered different things. Utah would have been a place I was really comfortable with, lots of Polynesians. Texas gives me a chance to be different. Oregon was kind of in the middle. I wanted to take a chance on myself.”

The 6-0, 211-pound Lefau becomes the Longhorns’ ninth commitment in the 2023 class. Now that his decision is public, he said he’s closing the book on recruiting.

“I’m done with recruiting. I told (the Texas coaches) on Thursday. Then Friday was nothing, then I just announced it (on Saturday).

“I already had my mind made up on the visit. I was ready to commit on the visit to Texas. We kind of said to ourselves, my family, no matter what, even if I love it, I won’t commit on the trip. We wanted to go home and think about it. Then I went to Oregon and still felt like Texas was the fight place for me.”

Lefau is ranked as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com.