28 Days to Purdue Football: Addai Lewellen

Royal Center, Indiana is pretty much a dot on the map northwest of Logansport, but it is the home of a pretty good 1A football program. Today's player is one of the best they have produced.

Addai Lewellen - Fr. (RS)

Royal Center, IN (Pioneer HS)

5'8", 175 pounds

Running back

2023 Projection: Reserve

Technically, Lewellen did play last year. In fact, he is the last Purdue player to touch the ball in a game as of right now. After the 100 yard pick-six for the final LSU score in the 63-7 bowl loss there was one more play from scrimmage. Purdue went deep into the bench for this final play, and Lewellen got a single carry for 7 yards as the last play of the game with 19 seconds left.

Not many Purdue fans were probably watching for that play, but it is at least one the walk-on will remember. He has a great story in his background. At age 5 he and his twin brother, Ezra, were adopted from Liberia by a couple from the small town of Royal Center. His birth name is Lakpyee, but he was renamed Addai after Colts running back Joseph Addai (who ironically played in college at LSU, the team Addai got his first carry against).

Addai was a freshman in 2018 when Pioneer went 15-0 and won the Class A state title for a second straight year behind Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser. He also played basketball and ran track for Pioneer. In football he ran for 2,768 yards and 45 touchdowns in four years, with his best season coming in 2019 as Pioneer reached the semi-state in Class 2A.

As for the future, Lewellen has good speed, which could get him to the field. He was a state qualifier in the 100 meters with a time of 11.24 seconds in 2021 and he also qualified in the 300 meter hurdles and the long jump.

Even if the only carry he ever was the one in the waning minutes of the LSU blowout he still made it to this level.