The 2025 Rice Football recruiting class keeps adding talent. Ivy League defensive player of the year Ejike Adele has committed to the Owls.
The pipeline connecting Rice football recruiting and the Ivy Leagues continues to push talented football players from the Northeast to South Main. A year removed from landing standing Dartmouth defensive end Charlie Looes, Rice has picked up a commitment from his former teammate. Defensive end and reigning Ivy League defensive player of the year Ejike Adele has committed to the Owls.
“I had heard great things about the team and the program from my former teammate Charlie Looes,” Adele told The Roost. “I was already familiar with Coach Abell and his staff since they recruited me out of high school when they were at Davidson. I could sense a lot of excitement about the program on my visit and it felt like they were developing a family atmosphere that I want to be a part of.”
Looes was a runner-up for the Bushnell Cup, given annually to the Ivy League’s best defensive player. Adele took home the award last year, finishing in the top 25 in the nation in tackles for a loss (12.0) while leading Dartmouth in sacks (6.0) and racking up 54 tackles, second on the team.
To this point, the 2025 Rice football recruiting class has filled out quite nicely including 10 transfer additions, eight of which have already enrolled. Adele will finish up his degree this spring and join the team in the summer alongside fellow Ivy League addition Sean Sullivan from Yale.
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Adele’s versatility makes him a particularly exciting addition in the defensive trenches. As his film showcases, he can line up all over the front, something that has proven particularly valuable to the Owls in recent years.
“I liked that the scheme allows guys to be versatile and line up in different spots depending on the situation,” Adele said of the Owls’ scheme. “That’s one thing I enjoyed being able to do at Dartmouth which also allowed me to be successful as a player there.”
Become a Patron!I have entered the transfer portal as a spring graduate transfer with 1 year of eligibility remaining.
— Ejike Adele (@ejike_adele) November 26, 2024
– 6’2” 275 lbs DL
– 3x Ivy League Champion
– 1st Team All-Ivy League
– 2024 Stats (10 Games): 54 TOT, 12 TFL, 6 Sacks, 1 FR
– #1 in Ivy League in TFL
Full Highlights in Bio pic.twitter.com/QtIElS6VmB
