Height: 6’5”
Weight: 260 pounds
Hometown: Bettendorf, Iowa (Michigan State)
Class/Position: RS Freshman/ Defensive Line
A one-time four-star, Top 300 prospect coming out of high school, Andrew Depaepe enters his third year of college football looking for a spark. He played in just one game at Michigan State as a true freshman despite that big-time recruit status and ended up transferring to IU as a walk-on when his brother committed to Indiana.
He suffered a season-ending knee injury in camp before he had the chance to play for the Hoosiers, so it’s really unclear at this point what he can offer or what his role might even be. He has a body for the Big Ten to go along with his former legit national recruit status, so having a guy on the roster with that combination that you’re not really counting on is a nice thing to have.
At this point, anything IU can get from him is a bonus – there are tons of good options on the DL for Bryant Haines this season as IU brought some key faces back, and recruited the defensive line positions really well out of high school and the portal this past offseason.
Depaepe is totally buried on the depth chart at every position on the DL as it stands right now, but perhaps a year of rehab and getting comfortable in Bloomington can unlock some of the potential that he had coming out of high school. It will be fun to watch this one unfold, as if IU can get any sort of production from him, it would be a nice win. I always personally like when brothers suit up for the same team, and I wonder if Andrew or his brother William (RS Freshman DL) makes a play first.
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