Well, what do we have here? Thanks to a little detective work, it appears as though former USC linebacker Palaie Gaoteote is now appearing in the Ohio State student directory. The discovery appears to have first been made by Buckeye Scoop.
For weeks now, it had been assumed that Ohio State was in the running for the former five-star talent. Once Tennessee linebacker Henry To’o To’o spurned OSU for Alabama through the transfer portal, the word on the street was that the Buckeyes began to turn up the heat on swaying Gaoteote to transfer to the Buckeye program. Gaoteote entered his name into the transfer portal last December and was thought to be leaning towards Texas before Ohio State aggressively entered the picture.
There is now a Palaie Gaoteote in the Ohio State directory. Ohio State has not confirmed the addition of the former 5-star USC linebacker who entered the transfer portal last year. pic.twitter.com/U8wz5EJhhU
— BuckeyeScoop (@BuckeyeScoop) June 19, 2021
If the literal writing on the OSU student directory is true, Gaoteote would provide some experience and talent to a very young linebacking corps this coming season. The 6-foot, 2-inch, 250-pound junior out of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas didn’t quite fulfill the promise his recruiting accolades said he would, but he was still a solid starter in the second level of the defense for the Trojans.
We must stress that there has been no official word from Ohio State on the transfer of Gaoteote, but we’ll be on top of it once anything more concrete beomes available.
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