Former Oregon State linebacker Isaiah Tufaga quickly finds a new home, lands at Hawaii

One day after his name entered the NCAA transfer portal, former Oregon State linebacker has found a new school.

Tufaga is returning home to the islands, as the Honolulu native announced on social media Wednesday that he’ll enroll at Hawaii.

Tufaga, who started five games as a true freshman at Oregon State in 2018, left the program earlier this week and put his name into the NCAA transfer portal Tuesday.

Tufaga or Oregon State hasn’t said why the sophomore linebacker decided to leave the Beavers program, but it had become apparent he was the odd man out in an improving inside linebacker room. Since last season, OSU has added several players to its inside linebacker roster, including Nebraska transfer Avery Roberts, JC transfer Kyrei Fisher and freshman Omar Speights.

Tufaga must sit one year to satisfy NCAA transfer rules, but won’t miss any playing time because he didn’t take a redshirt year at Oregon State. Tufaga will have four years to play his remaining three years at Hawaii.

Oregon State plays at Hawaii on Sept. 7, but that’s not the only tie the two schools share.

OSU was hit with an NCAA secondary violation last summer after sending recruiting packets to a Hawaii player during the spring of 2018. Oregon State self-reported the incident, but Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich called out the Beavers on Twitter for the incident.

--Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel

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