LSU set to host first official visitor of football season
The LSU football staff will host the first official visitor of the season when Hawaii native and Utah high school linebacker Tausili Akana heads to campus on Friday for a multiple-day stay in Baton Rouge.
Akana’s high school football team, Skyridge High, is set to play on Thursday night, which frees up his weekend and allows the Top 300 prospect to fly to Louisiana for the weekend.
Akana, who is ranked as a four-star prospect and the No. 15 EDGE rusher on the On3 Consensus, visited LSU for camp in June, and the return visit puts the Tigers firmly inside his final group of teams as he navigates the back end of his recruitment.
Akana is coming off an official visit to Texas on Sep. 10 for the Longhorns matchup with Alabama, which the Tide won 20-19.
Now, Akana is kicking off back-to-back official visit weekends by taking in this weekend’s LSU home game against Tennessee before traveling to Oklahoma on October 14 as the Sooners host Kansas.
Akana’s fourth official visit is slated for November 4 at Texas A&M. The Aggies are set to host the Florida Gators that weekend.
Akana, who is ranked as the No. 1 prospect in Utah, checks in as the No. 93 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class.
Over the course of a week in early June, Akana visited seven schools across the south with stops at Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M.
Recruiting Prediction Machine still wide open for Akana
The On3 RPM, powered by Spiny.AI, utilizes machine learning to forecast college choices.
Texas holds a slight edge on the On3 RPM (24%), while Nebraska (13%) and Texas A&M (11%) are the next two teams up.
There have been no predictions made by any experts on the On3 RPM, which means the industry feels the Hawaii native is keeping an open mind as he takes a closer look at some of his top options.
LSU’s verbal scholarship offer came in April 2021, and LSU head coach Brian Kelly and the new staff in Baton Rouge have continued to push for the 6-foot-4, 220-pound edge rusher. The Tigers already have commitments in from a trio of EDGE rushers in Dashawn Womack, Joshua Mickens and Jaxon Howard, though defensive line coach Jamar Cain has not stopped recruiting Akana and a handful of others. LSU has one defensive tackle committed in the 2023 class in Georgia four-star Darron Reed, who is ranked by On3 as a Top 50 overall prospect in the country.
Tausili Akana, a native of Kahuku, Hawaii, played his freshman season at Kamehameha High in Hawaii, at Wasatch High in Utah as a sophomore, and then at Skyridge High in Utah in 2021. Outstanding athletes run in his family. His sister, Keonilei Akana, is a volleyball player at Nebraska and was named the Hawaii player of the year as a senior in high school. Tausili Akana lists lifting, track and basketball as his hobbies.
