Cal Sports Report

Safety Aiden Manutai Commits to Cal for 2025

Manutai chose the Golden Bears over Washington, Tennessee, Arizona and Nebraska

Jake Curtis

Aiden Manutai
Aiden Manutai /
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Aiden Manutai, a three-star safety from Kahuku, Hawaii, announced on Friday that he has committed to Cal for the class of 2025.

The 6-foot, 195-pound Manutai announced his decision on a 247 Sports YouTube broadcast. He chose Cal over his four other finalists – Washington, Tennessee, Nebraska and Arizona. Miami, Oregon and Missouri were among the other schools that offered Manutai.

Manutai is the second player from Hawaii to commit to Cal this week, joining quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele, who committed on Monday. A third Hawaiian -- defesive back LeBrown Williams -- had committed to Cal for 2025 earlier, and Manutai said their presence at Cal plays a role in his decision.

“Definitely the hardest decision I ever had," Manutai said after anouncing his decision. "Every school had their own opportunity. I just felt Cal was the place I needed too be, especially with Jaron and LeBron going to Cal. I know they have the same mentality and the same goals as me, so that’s the people I want to be surrounded by, plus coach [Tre Watson and Terrence Brown, Cal’s defensive backs coaches] and the whole staff made it easy for me.”

“It’s huge, we already have a tight relationship," Manutai said regarding Williams' commitment to Cal. "so it’s going to be pretty easy, it’s going to make the process easy. Everybody gets homesick from Hawaii. I’m pretty sure I won’t get homesick with those guys.

ESPN ranks Manutai as the 24th-best safety prospect in the class of 2025 and the No. 1 overall prospect from Hawaii. The 247 Sports site ranks Manutai as the 62nd-best safety prospect and the No. 9 overall prospect in Hawaii. The On3 site ranks him as the 58th safety and the No. 4 prospect in Hawaii.

Greg Biggins, national recruiting analyst for 247 Sports, gave this assessment of Manutai on Friday:

"‘To me, he’s one of the most complete safeties. Football now is different. You can’t have those guys like you did 20 years ago, who were just specifically safeties. This is a guy who can play some corner as well. You see it on the tape that he’ll line up out wide, one-on-one, with no help and he’ll lock a guy up.

"He’s really good; he’s really rangy. He’s got excellent ball skills. Had the big pick-six against St. John Bosco last year, so, again, a complete football player. He’s got range. He can play some deep center field. You can move him in the box. He’s got physicality.

"With Kahuku kids you know you’re going to get two things: highly competitive and very, very tough – nasty, physical, play angry, righteous anger. They play with a little bit of an edge. He’s got the ability to be a deep safety in coverage. He can also go one-on-one. You can put him in the box. He can almost play like another linebacker, so he never needs to leave the field. I love the complete package with Aiden. Well-spoken, great kid, very humble, but he’s got that edge."

Rivals classifies Manutai as an athlete, but he is expected to a defensive back at Cal, which has a history of turning out talented defensive backs under Justi Wilcox.

He is the 15th high school player to commit to Cal in the class of 2025.

Manutai’s official visit to Cal was on May 23, and he visited Tennessee, Nebraska and Washington after that.

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Jake Curtis

JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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