Notre Dame EDGE Junior Tuihalamaka to enter NCAA Transfer Portal
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Notre Dame EDGE Junior Tuihalamaka plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, per On3’s Pete Nakos. This comes after a judge in Louisiana granted Tuihalamaka and 15 other class of 2022 football players a restraining order that allows them to return to college this season.
Junior Tuihalamaka played for Notre Dame for the last four seasons. In 2025, Tuihalamaka played in all 12 games with three starts and recorded 12 tackles, three and a half tackles for loss, one sack, and one pass breakup.
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When Notre Dame went on its run to the national championship game in 2024, Tuihalamaka played in all 16 games and recorded 33 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and two fumble recoveries. Before the start of the 2024 season, Tuihalamaka was placed on the Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Watch List.
During the 2023 season, Tuihalamaka played in all 13 games and totaled 10 tackles. As a freshman in 2022, Tuihalamaka played in all 13 games with one start and tallied six tackles while also contributing on special teams.
More on Junior Tuihalamaka and the NCAA’s response
Tuihalamaka played high school football at Bishop Alemany in Mission Hills, California. During his senior season, the California native registered 84 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, four sacks and three forced fumbles.
As a recruit, Tuihalamaka was a four-star player and ranked No. 198 in the On3|Rivals Industry Rankings Class of 2022. He was also ranked the 19th EDGE player and No. 13 in the state of California.
Tuihalamaka and the 15 other players’ return to college football does not sit well with the NCAA. After the Louisiana judge’s ruling, Tim Buckley, the NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, issued a statement.
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” Buckley said, per the Associated Press. “The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
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