In early May, Stanford football landed a commitment from 2025 3-star safety Donte Utu out of Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Utu held offers from Air Force, Army, Idaho, Nevada, San Diego State, and Washington State in addition to Stanford. When looking at that offers list, it’s not hard to figure out why he would commit to the Cardinal. Utu took an official visit to Stanford the weekend of June 6th, so he was on campus to help recruit other guys to The Farm.
In case Punahou School rings a bell, it should if you are a Stanford fan. Former Cardinal safety Alaka’i Gilman played at Punahou as well. Utu is following in Gilman’s footsteps by coming to Stanford and playing the same position as he did.
Listed at 6’1”, 175 pounds, Utu plays with a lot of aggression. He is a physical tackler, makes good reads, and has good hands, capable of getting interceptions and running them back. He’s played some nickel in the secondary, so he can be used in that way in addition to playing safety.
Rivals has him rated as low 3-star with a 5.5 Rivals rating, so he’s gonna have to really prove himself at the next level. Stanford safeties coach Bob Gregory obviously sees something in him as does defensive coordinator Bobby April III. It’ll be interesting to see how he does under their coaching and whether or not he’ll out-perform his rating.
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