On Friday, March 12, junior Ashton Lepo decided to continue his athletic career as a lineman at Michigan State University. This announcement came three days after Lepo had narrowed down his top choices between Michigan State, Baylor University, Indiana University, and the University of Cincinnati. Lepo weighs in at 6’7″ and 270 pounds.

What made you think Michigan State was the right fit?

“Basically it was just Cincinnati and State. Those two stuck out to me and all the love that they showed me during the recruitment process, was pretty immaculate and it really stood out to me. I’ve always grown up being a Michigan State fan. To finally get that offer it was pretty surreal at that moment I realized that some of my dreams are coming true.”

Going back six months you weren’t really talked about being much of a major division one prospect, and now it seems like all the offers happened at once. What was it like dealing with all that attention?

“So at first I noticed I started getting some attention and Coach Farley was talking to me about it too and I realized if I keep putting in the work, bigger things are gonna come. And so I did throughout the football season, last season, and this offseason I’ve just been getting bigger and bigger, and every offer has pushed me to work harder. It’s been great and everything happened so fast and I’m really grateful for everything that happened to me. Just the opportunity that these places gave me and it was just awesome and they believed in me.”

Coach Farley said that you put on about 20 pounds of good weight since the end of the season. What have you had to do to make that happen and how big do you hope to get?

“Football season I was around 230 to 240, and then I realized in the offseason I had to put on some weight to keep up with these D1 athletes. I’ve been working out almost every day and hitting the weights like crazy, eating a bunch. He’s got me put on like 5000 calorie diets, crazy stuff like that.”

What kinds of things will you be doing between now and college football to prepare?

“I think I’m just gonna be working on more of my just for specifying an offensive attack on my position. I am going to be working more at that and some of my footwork, and I’m in the offseason I’m also going to the All American camp, which is coming up pretty soon after spring break. I think that’s going to be a good opportunity for me to learn some stuff.”

Some college football signings look to graduate high school early in January and then enroll in their college for a winter semester of what would have would have been their senior year. Is that something you’re considering doing?

“Right now you know I talked about, but I’m not really sure if I’m going to do that or not. Just thinking about everything else and what sports I can play next year.”