USC starting LB Palaie Gaoteote enters the NCAA transfer portal
As far as such stories go, this one hit as a surprise Monday morning.
USC junior linebacker Palaie Gaoteote has put his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal.
The former 5-star prospect from Bishop Gorman HS in Las Vegas, Nev., started the first two games of the season at the Rover, or weakside LB position, before sustaining a concussion that has kept him out the last three weeks (two games).
But the season wasn't going as planned before that either. After considerable preseason hype from head coach Clay Helton, who repeatedly said that new defensive coordinator Todd Orlando had taken Gaoteote to "another level," the linebacker had a relatively quiet 9 tackles before getting hurt while the LB unit as a whole underwhelmed.
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In his absence, junior Kana'i Mauga filled in well as the starter opposite sophomore Ralen Goforth, who was out with injury this last game.
Overall, the linebacker unit has been beset by injuries as Jordan Iosefa (knee surgery), Solomon Tuliaupupu (knee surgery) and Eli'jah Winston (broken ankle) were all lost for the season before it began, and Tayler Katoa has been trying to work back from Achilles tendinitis.
USC mostly relied on Mauga as its sole traditional linebacker Sunday in the win over Washington State while safety Talanoa Hufanga lined up at middle linebacker throughout the game and led the team with 9 tackles.
So losing Gaoteote would be another big blow to the depth at that position, and the timing of the move is particularly interesting with the Trojans off to a 4-0 start and one win away from the Pac-12 championship game.
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Overall, Gaoteote has tallied 105 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss in his two-plus seasons at USC.
When he spoke to reporters in the preseason, he expressed that he had a good relationship with Orlando.
"I would describe Coach Orlando as a straight shooter," he said in October. "One of the biggest things he preaches is honesty, and ever since he's been here he's been nothing but honest with us. That's just been what drives us to just get better for him."
Helton, meanwhile, talked about how Gaoteote was responded to Orlando's hard coaching.
"His maturity level, his acceptance of coaching and hard coaching with TO has been great for him, to be honest with you. TO has taken him to another level," Helton said then. "... I think the guy that has benefited the most in my opinion has been EA. He’s on another level right now of where he's been."
It didn't fully carry over to the start to the season for the junior, and unfortunately due to the concussion, there has been only that small sample size to observe so far.
It's unclear whether this was any factor in his decision, but the linebacker's brother, 4-star 2021 LB prospect Ma'a Gaoteote has long been publicly committed to USC but is not expected to end up in the Trojans' final class. In his limited comments on the matter, he has acknowledged he's considering other schools. He also left St. John Bosco HS here in the Los Angeles area and transferred back to Bishop Gorman prior to this school year.
USC should be fine depth-wise next year at the linebacker position with Iosefa, Tuliaupupu and Winston hopefully healthy joining the incumbents Goforth and Mauga, with 4-star Julien Simon adding to the mix as an incoming freshman, and Katoa, Raymond Scott and Tuasivi Nomura also competing for roles.
But there will remain the what-if for Gaoteote, who many expected big things from in his USC career as he was ranked the No. 21 overall prospect at any position in the 2018 recruiting class. Unless he reconsiders his desire to pursue a transfer, the final verdict will be that for whatever reason the Trojans were never able to get the most out of the highly-touted prospect.