Notre Dame Grad Transfer DT Keanaaina Commits to Cal

The Bears made another grad transfer pickup today with the commitment of Notre Dame defensive tackle Aidan Keanaaina a few days after his official visit to Cal.

“Cal is everything that I could ever want or need and it’s the perfect place for me to go,” Keanaaina said after his commitment this afternoon.

The 6-3/315 senior was rated the #4 player overall in Colorado by Rivals as a prep and accumulated an impressive list of offers, including Michigan, Michigan State, USC, Penn State, Florida and more before choosing Notre Dame after totaling 77 tackles (13 for loss), four sacks, seven hurries, eight forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and one blocked field goal in his senior season.

Keanaaina was one of five visitors on campus last weekend and one of many to commit.

The visit to Cal was great," Keanaaina said. "It was my first time meeting (DL) Coach (Andrew) Browning in person, and Coach Wilcox and see that entire staff, so I enjoyed the visit very much.:  
"We started off with a tour of the facilities and they showed me around the stadium. I had a couple of meetings with academic staff because there's a few programs that I'm interested in and Berkeley has a few of those programs. So I just wanted to talk to them about academics and requirements and about my likelihood of getting into them because Cal is such a high-grade academic institution.

"I'd like to do a masters that helps get me into the healthcare community so maybe a master in public health, MHA, because I'm a business undergraduate major and getting a masters with a healthcare emphasis, that's what I'd like to do if football doesn't work out."

The former Notre Dame DT had a chance to see Cal up close and personal last season when the Bears were narrowly defeated by the Irish and certainly had his eyes opened.

"I thought of Cal as a very gritty and no-quit team," Keanaaina said. "I remember our game was very close. Going into it, I knew of Cal and that they'd be a tough opponent but I didn't think they'd be as tough as they were."

As a senior after coming back from injury, Keanaaina totaled 7 tackles and a ½ sack and was a disruptive force up the middle for the Irish.

He becomes the third grad transfer commit of the class, joining North Texas QB Chandler Rogers‍ and UC Davis MLB Teddye Buchanan‍ and is the 19^th 2024 commit overall. He will be a spring enrollee at Cal.

Keanaaina will have two more seasons of eligibility with 2020 not counting and playing less than the four-game redshirt limit in 2021.