Notre Dame defensive end Devin Aupiu enters transfer portal before freshman season

Devin Aupiu plans to end his freshman year at Notre Dame before the football season even gets started. 

On Tuesday night, the freshman defensive end announced on Instagram that he has decided to enter his name into the NCAA transfer portal. 

Aupiu started his Notre Dame career as an early enrollee in February. His fall football season at Oxnord (Calif.) Pacifica was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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“I won’t have to waste a redshirt year to get to know the system, put on weight and get stronger and faster,” Aupiu told ND Insider in January. “Colleges do that at a way better pace than you can do on your own. They break everything down to a science. So getting out there as early as I can and having those type of resources will be the best for me.” 

Because Aupiu entered the transfer portal before July 1, he should be able to use the NCAA’s new one-time transfer exception and be eligible to play immediately this fall at a different school. The deadline for football players in future years will be May 1. 

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Aupiu was recruited as a vyper defensive end by the Irish. He flipped his commitment from UCLA to Notre Dame in December shortly before the early signing period. The three-star recruit also reported offers from USC, California, Arizona State, Utah, Vanderbilt and others as a recruit. 

Rivals ranked Aupiu as the No. 39 weakside defensive end in the 2021 class. 247Sports slated him as the No. 50 linebacker. 

Aupiu wasn’t expected to play as a freshman at Notre Dame with junior Isaiah Foskey and sophomore Jordan Botelho at the top of the vyper depth chart.

Follow ND Insider Tyler James on Twitter: @TJamesNDI.