Tag: Epi Sitanilei

4-star edge rusher flips UCLA commitment to head to Ohio State

A tough loss for UCLA.

4-star edge rusher Epi Sitanilei committed to UCLA back in June but on Wednesday Sitanilei flipped to the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It’s not hard to imagine why Sitanilei might want to join the 10-2 school that’s produced six NFL first round picks over the last three years but it will sting for the Big Ten rival Bruins. 

“All glory to God – I’m home! Go Bucks!” Sitanilei, the Bellflower, California native posted on Twitter Wednesday. 

Sitanilei visited UCLA back in May months before initially committing to the Bruins. Ohio State then hosted Sitanilei over the weekend on an official visit which did enough to win over his commitment. 

Sitanilei is ranked as the #21 prospect in California according to On3’s Industry Rankings and is ranked as their #28 edge rusher. Before flipping to Ohio State, Sitanilei was the Bruins’ highest ranked in their 2025 class.

 National recruiting director for Rivals.com Adam Gorney called Sitanilei said that “Maybe no DE has a higher ceiling than Epi Sitanilei in this recruiting class.”

Epi Sitanilei commits to UCLA football

Another commit coming to Westwood.

DeShaun Foster’s recruiting class of 2025 continues to round into place for the UCLA Bruins.  6’5, 220lbs edge rusher Epi Sitanilei from Bellflower California was the latest to commit to the Bruins.

According to 247Sports, he is a three-star recruit and listed as an 87 overall ranking. Sitanilei had interest from numerous schools and had as many as 14 offers. Some of the other offers came from California, Arizona, Arizona State and San Jose State.

He played his high school football at St. John Bosco. He has eye popping length and athletics that Foster and the Bruins coaching staff is excited about. He went to the Under Armour Next camp in March and finished with 25 tackles and three sacks.

Sitanilei made his commitment official on X:

His first official visit to UCLA was back on May 17th. After that, he visited Oregon State, Arizona and California before committing to UCLA on Saturday.