College Football Recruiting: Hawaii 3* DB Fatuvalu Iosefa announces his commitment to California
Golden Bear family affair
Fatuvalu Iosefa, a 6’0 170 lb defensive back from Mililani, Hawaii, has announced his commitment to the California Golden Bears. Iosefa held offers from BYU, Nebraska, and Oregon State.
Iosefa attends his local high school, Mililani High. He is a 3* recruit and is considered the eighth-best player in the state of Hawaii by 247Sports. He is the Bears’ eighth recruit of the 2021 class and the second defensive back. Hunter Barth, a safety out of Queen Creek, Arizona, committed in April.
Although recruiting sites list Iosefa as a safety, he self-reports his primary recruiter as inside linebackers coach Peter Sirmon, who has been part of the new STAR position’s development in the Bears’ defense.
Fatuvalu Iosefa is the younger brother of a current Golden Bear: freshman inside linebacker Muelu Iosefa.
You can watch his highlight reel here on Hudl.
Welcome to Berkeley, Fatuvalu!
His recruitment by Sirmon and projected STAR position (fka "The Coin" Safety/LB hybrid) is an interesting one since he played mostly Corner, not safety. Iosefa has a leaner frame, so he doesn't look like he can put on much more weight without sacrificing speed.
Hmmm... actually that's okay.
Watch Fatuvalu's highlight tape. And then remember DeRuyter's defense (now Sirmon's defense, which is reportedly very similar to DeRuyter's). Cal runs a 3-4 front often rushing one of the linebackers (sometime someone from the secondary) to create a 4 man rush. This leaves 4 guys in the secondary to defend against the pass. Cal's defensive back scheme uses a more sophisticated set-up where guys drift in and out of different pre-snap looks in order to create confusion for the QB. It's a lot of fun to watch our defensive schemes. So you'll often have the strong safety actually play a rotating CB to cover another receiver. And as Traveon Beck showed, you don't have to be the biggest guy to be a fearsome tackler.
Now watch Fatu's tape. You'll see his Defensive Coordinator set him up 8, 9, 10 and bigger cushions from him receiver. Where you going, son? That is a crazy amount of cushion to give against any QB with an arm strength. Time and time again - big cushion with a backpedal. But you'll see Iosefa watching the QB, not the receiver, like a safety does. He breaks on the QBs eyes, gets a great jump and eats up all that cushion. He arrives pretty near the time the ball arrives, tackling for a modest gain. So his read/react/sprint game seems pretty sweet already.
He's also got some man-press highlights and they look good too, but the sample size is small. Also, I haven't seen whole game tapes to see the non-cherry picked plays. But I can see what Sirmon sees in the CB that plays like a safety, especially in the Pac-12 - which uses its fair share of H-backs, 11 personnel packages, and quads. It's the defensive evolution in the rock-paper-scissor game of personnel & strategy. Couldn't find any official speed combined figures or track-and-field results. But eyeballs say he's not a burner, but he's fast enough and quick enough. His main strength is his brain - his ability to read and react quickly.
If there's any downside, it's his strength. He's supposed to be 175 lbs, but he looks lighter than that. Sure, he's still a growing high-schooler, but his developing strength resulted in less than spectacular tackling and instances of distinct physical disadvantage when being blocked. No doubt S&C will get him man-strong and ready to play Pac-12 football.
Welcome to Cal, Fatu.
Go Bears!