2024 three-star DT Deyvid Palepale flips from USC to Michigan

In what may be one of the more surprising and interesting twists in the 2024 recruiting cycle for the Michigan Wolverines, three-star defensive tackle Deyvid Palepale just flipped his commitment from USC to the Maize and Blue.

The 6-foot-3, 305-pounder hails from Alaska originally, but currently resides in Landisville, Pennsylvania. He was offered by defensive line coach Mike Elston back in February and took an official visit to Michigan in June. He also took official visits to Penn State and USC before announcing his commitment to the Trojans on July 1.

Nothing was said of this recruitment until this week, when On3 recruiting analysts EJ Holland and Zach Libby put in predictions for Palepale to flip his commitment to Michigan. Just one day later, three analysts on 247Sports — including Steve Wiltfong — put in their flip predictions as well.

The bizarre part of his recruitment is that Palepale was kicked off his high school team back in October, according to PennLive, due to disciplinary reasons. It’s unclear what the exact reason was for his removal from the team, but whatever the reason was, it isn’t a big enough deal for the Wolverines to hold off on taking his commitment.

With this pledge, the Wolverines now have four interior defensive linemen in the 2024 class, as Palepale joins four-star Ted Hammond, three-star Owen Wafle and three-star Manuel Beigel. The class remains at No. 16 overall in the 247Sports composite rankings, but is just fractions of points outside the top-15.

Besides Michigan, USC and Penn State, Palepale also has offers from Ohio State, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, Miami, Kentucky, Florida, Auburn and more.

Palepale is ranked No. 20 in the state of Pennsylvania, No. 83 along the defensive line and No. 737 overall on 247Sports’ composite rankings. You can check out his highlights on his Hudl page.