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Alauna Finau |
Position: Defensive End Previous College: Cerritos Community College Projection: Third-String Status: On Scholarship |
Alauna Finau was an extremely late addition to the 2012 class who isn't even acknowledged anywhere on the official K-State athletics website at this point.
His is an interesting story. His brother, John Finau, was lined up to play for Ron Prince in the 2007 class, but he never had sufficient grades to enroll at K-State. Now his brother will get to live that dream instead.
Finau was brought in to provide depth at defensive end, and while it seems unlikely that he will upstage either Adam Davis or Meshak Williams as a starter there, there's no reason he can compete for a second-string spot.
That means he'll be vying with inexperienced players such as Marquel Bryant and Laton Dowling, or former walk-ons such as Ryan Mueller. That's as good an opportunity as an incoming JUCO player can ask for.
At any rate, he certainly seems excited about the opportunity:
I have wanted to go to Kansas State for a couple of years. It has always been my dream to play at Kansas State. Manhattan was a beautiful city and the campus was amazing.
Coach Bill Snyder told me he was excited that I wanted to be part of the program after he had offered me a scholarship. He said he felt that I could help the program out.
I'm a defensive end first. But if the coaches want me to play somewhere else, like linebacker or whatever, then I'm OK with that. If they think they can coach me to be good enough to play, I'll do it.
I have a redshirt year available, but I haven't talked to them about using that.
As a sophomore at Cerritos, Finau recorded 36 tackles, nine tackles for loss, six quarterback sacks and 21 quarterback hurries.