5-Star DE Iose Epenesa, Brother of Bills' A.J., Commits to Iowa over Penn State, More

The Iowa Hawkeyes have added another talented piece to their defensive unit.

Scott Dochterman of The Athletic reported that five-star defensive end Iose Epenesa announced his commitment to the Hawkeyes over program’s like Miami, Utah, Missouri and Penn State.

“Five-star defensive end Iose Epenesa committed to Iowa on Thursday night, choosing the Hawkeyes over Miami, Utah, Penn State and Missouri,” Dochterman wrote. “Epenesa, the son of former Iowa defensive tackle Eppy Epenesa and the younger brother of former Iowa defensive lineman A.J. Epenesa and current Iowa linebacker Eric Epenesa, hails from Edwardsville, Ill. He has attended numerous Hawkeyes games nearly every year of his life.”

Epenesa hails from Edwardsville, Illinois and is rated as the No. 42 player nationally, the No. 5 defensive lineman and the top player in the state of Illinois, per 247 Sports’ composite rankings.

Iowa was the only school he visited and his commitment shows further family loyalty to the Hawkeyes. He is the 14th hard commit of the 2025 class and is the second commit that is rated above a four-star, per 247.

He joins a Hawkeyes team that has had 11 consecutive winning seasons and that won 10 games in 2023. His brother Eric is heading into his junior season with the Hawkeyes and could overlap with Iose in 2025.