UCLA Football Recruiting: Deon Hollins’ Commitment Gets Hard

College football recruiting is a friggin’ roller-coaster, and UCLA football recruiting is no different.

As can be seen by 4-star outside linebacker Deon Hollins’ recent updating of his verbal commitment from a soft verbal to a “solid verbal.” Aside from the dirty jokes that could arise from something going from soft to “solid,” it’s indicative of how we should take recruiting before January with a grain of salt.

Regardless, this gives us an opportunity to check out Deon Hollins and create a little profile, much like we have with other UCLA recruiting targets. So let’s jump right into a highlight video.

The first thing of note — if we’re ignoring that he looks like crap in that shitty-ass ketchup and mustard uniform — is that he reacts to the snap pretty quick and pretty explosively. In most of these, the dude’s rocketing past the offensive line within a blink of an eye. He seems to cause serious havoc in the backfield and his strong-point seems to be in rushing into the backfield or, at times, playing the run. There isn’t much in these highlights showing Hollins dropping back in coverage, so you could make a flighty assumption that he isn’t the best coverage linebacker.

The scouting reports seem to agree, to a point. They cite a necessity for Hollins to take time to learn to play coverage. However, that seems to be the biggest knock on the dude. The reports rave about his freakish athleticism and explosive first step, and that’s pretty much what we saw on tape (in a highlight tape during his SOPHOMORE YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL).

Dude’s a legit prospect, and, as we keep banging our heads on the wall to remind you, OLBs will be more valuable in UCLA defensive coordinator Lou Spanos’ 3-4 base defense, because outside linebackers are meant to be the defense’s primary pass-rushers and playmakers.

We’re glad Deon Hollins’ commitment got hard, because, based on these highlights, we’re hard for Deon Hollins.

(OK, we’ll stop.)

GO BRUINS!!!