UCLA gained a significant boost to its 2016 football recruiting class on Monday afternoon, as 4-star quarterback Devon Modster committed to the Bruins.
In its preview of the first official visit period of January this past weekend, Go Joe Bruin felt that official visitor and 4-star QB Devon Modster (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA/Tesoro) was a prime candidate to use his trip to Westwood as an impetus to end his recruitment by choosing the Bruins. Indeed, that turned out to be the case, as Modster announced his commitment to UCLA on his Twitter account:
UCLA Bruins
Modster is an intriguing talent who has been a UCLA recruiting target since the spring of 2015. He shocked many Pac-12 recruiting followers when he spurned the Bruins for Arizona in April. However, he decommitted from the Wildcats in December and once he re-established contact with the UCLA coaching staff, there seemed to be only one likely destination for Modster despite the advances of Oklahoma State, Maryland, and Syracuse.
As far as his game is concerned, Modster has good arm strength and throws a tight and catchable ball, and really seems to be able to put the ball in tight windows when he has protection and can set his feet. His highlight tape makes it clear that he’s a natural runner as well. In his senior season, he showed much better touch on his deep passes. He also showed greater comfort sitting in the pocket and letting routes develop when he had good protection from his offensive line.
However, Modster does have flaws in the mental side of the game that will need to be smoothed out before he is ready to take the reigns of a Pac-12 offense. He has a tendency to lock onto his first receiver and not go through his progressions. He also still has a tendency to exhibit “happy feet” in the pocket and needs to become more poised in order to take advantage of gaps in defenses at the next level.
In spite of those critiques, Modster at this stage is about as polished as most young quarterbacks not named Josh Rosen. With Rosen ahead of him on the depth chart for the next two seasons, Modster will hopefully have time to develop out of the spotlight under the tutelage of new UCLA quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo until his time to shine arrives in 2018.
Next: UCLA Football Recruiting: 2016 Defensive Big Board 1.0
With Modster in hand alongside fellow QB commits Matt Lynch (Broomfield, CO/Legacy) and Dymond Lee (West Hills, CA/Chaminade), UCLA’s quarterback recruiting for 2016 is wrapped up and the UCLA staff will be able to focus on other positions of need in the stretch run to National Signing Day on February 3.
Welcome to Westwood, Devon!