Just two days after a Louisiana court ruled 16 former college football players eligible for another season of competition, LSU has added one of them for the 2026 season.
Former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka announced Friday on his Instagram account that he has committed to the Tigers. Tuihalamaka collected 61 tackles, including nine for loss, in four seasons with the Fighting Irish from 2022-25.
The 6-foot-2, 255-pound Californian played in 12 games for Notre Dame last season, including three starts.
Prior to this year, NCAA athletes had five years to play four seasons, barring medical redshirts or additional years granted after the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCAA recently changed its eligibility model, allowing athletes five years to play five seasons.
But the NCAA didn’t offer another year to the Class of 2022 recruits who had exhausted their eligibility. That prompted another wave of lawsuits, including Wednesday’s filing in Baton Rouge that resulted in a judge granting a temporary restraining order against the NCAA.
Four ex-LSU athletes were among the plaintiffs, including defensive end Jack Pyburn, who is currently on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster as an undrafted free agent.
Unlike Pyburn, Tuihalamaka wasn’t rostered by an NFL team, though the judge’s order said an athlete can return to the college ranks if his contract was terminated and he paid back whatever he earned as a pro.
The judge’s ruling also demanded the NCAA allow the plaintiffs access to the transfer portal, which closed for football players on Jan. 16. It also nullified NCAA penalties against programs signing “ghost transfers” who hadn’t entered the portal previously.
LSU coach Lane Kiffin declined Thursday to discuss the newly eligible seniors from the Louisiana lawsuit, which also includes three players who started for Kiffin at Ole Miss in 2025. But he did hint that a move could be coming when he answered another question about the Tigers’ depth along the offensive line.
“Normally we’d say our team is our team, and so it’s what we got. But I guess that potentially changed yesterday,” Kiffin said with a laugh.
LSU had an obvious need at defensive end. Aside from transfers Princewill Umanmielen (Ole Miss) and Jordan Ross (Tennessee), the Tigers are looking at a five-star recruit, Lamar Brown, to potentially play meaningful snaps as a freshman.
The defensive end rotation became shallower when Gabriel Reliford tore his ACL in the spring; the Tigers also have been without redshirt freshman Damien Shanklin, though Kiffin has not explained why he’s been absent from preseason camp.
Tuihalamaka would add depth, but it remains unclear how everything will work out in court. A federal, class-wide restraining order for Class of 2022 athletes out of Colorado was just stayed Friday by an appeals court.
That means fifth-year athletes who used up their four seasons are no longer eligible — unless a state court, like in Louisiana, granted them a restraining order. But the restraining order in Louisiana is temporary, and an Aug. 31 hearing in Baton Rouge will allow the NCAA to argue its side and bring up the stay granted in the Colorado case.
During basketball season, Alabama was able to make former G League center Charles Bediako eligible via a court ruling, but that held up for only five games before he was deemed ineligible again. Kiffin was asked Thursday how much clarity he needed on an athlete’s eligibility to add them to the roster.
“There’s a lot into that and the questions that come from that,” Kiffin said. “Fair question, but I’m not going to comment on any of it because there’s just too many directions of questions I can go to.”
A day later, Kiffin made a move.
Notre Dame didn’t bring back Tuihalamaka because head coach Marcus Freeman doesn’t think it makes sense to add athletes this late.
“I don’t think it would put a person in a good situation this late, school starts on Monday, to have success in the classroom and on the field,” Freeman said. “That’s kind of been our stance with it.”
