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Iowa football finalized its 2025 signing class with a pair of additions on national signing day.
Including its five walk-on arrivals, the Hawkeyes will be welcoming 21 new players into the Iowa football program this spring and summer.
As the final dominoes have fallen into place, ESPN’s Craig Haubert and Tom Luginbill shared some of their thoughts on all of the top 2025 signees nationally by position.
Per ESPN, one Hawkeye signee was among the best in the land. Iowa’s Iose Epenesa was highlighted as one of the nation’s top two defensive ends.
If Iose can match or exceed what A.J. provided as a freshman, that would be a tremendous lift to a defense that should be pretty stingy already.
A.J. Epenesa was a Big Ten All-Freshman selection per BTN.com after tallying 15 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in his inaugural campaign in 2017. Of course, A.J. Epenesa would go on to put together a pair of dominant final two seasons in the black and gold.
A.J. Epenesa registered 16.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks in 2018 and then 14.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in 2019.
Iose Epenesa arrives in Iowa City with lofty expectations thanks to the legacy that his brother authored in the not-so-distant past and thanks to his sensational prep career. Iose earned first-team All-State honors as a senior with Edwardsville in Illinois as he racked up 51 tackles, seven sacks, one forced fumble and a blocked kick.
During his Edwardsville career, the 6-foot-5, 270 pound defensive end set a new school sacks record. Epenesa was recently honored as the 2024 Polynesian High School Defensive Player of the Year and finished the cycle as a five-star signee per 247Sports.
247Sports ranks Epenesa as the nation’s No. 27 player, as its No. 5 defensive lineman and as the No. 1 player from Illinois.
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/espn-highlights-iowa-football-addition-133051539.html
Author : Hawkeyes Wire
Publish date : 2025-02-07 13:30:00
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