UCLA Football Recruiting: 2015 Final Defensive Big Board

Nov 22, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Cody Kessler (6) is pressured by UCLA Bruins defensive lineman Matt Dickerson (99) and defensive lineman Owamagbe Odighizuwa (94) during the second half at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

With Signing Day mere days away, Go Joe Bruin is taking a final big-picture look at UCLA football recruiting down the stretch run to the end of the 2015 recruiting cycle. After yesterday’s Offensive Big Board, we’ll look today at the recruits UCLA already has committed and the ones it is still pursuing on the defensive side of the ball.

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Since our last update, UCLA has closed on some pretty big recruits, missed on others, and generally narrowed down its remaining target list to focus in on the few players it really wants to round out its class. Of course, the Bruins are in the unique position of having one of their 2015 defensive commitments already playing for the team. Thanks to the sharp eye of UCLA defensive line coach and Northern California recruiting ace Angus McClure, former 4-star JUCO defensive end Takkarist McKinley was able to join the Bruins in mid-September and was an important part of the squad’s improved pass rush after his arrival.

DEFENSIVE LINE

McKinley is already on campus in Westwood, but two other defensive end recruits have committed to joining him next season: 3-star Cassius Peat (Tempe, AZ/Corona del Sol) and 3-star Rick Wade (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA/Santa Margarita Catholic). Peat is listed by recruiting services as an outside linebacker, but given that he has two Division I-playing brothers — Todd (Nebraska) and Andrus (Stanford) — who both top the scales at over 300 lbs, it’s safe to assume Peat has a lot of room to grow from his current weight of 235 lbs and that he will eventually end up with his hand in the ground at UCLA if he remains with the Bruins through Signing Day.

Wade, who we identified as an imminent commitment in our July recruiting update and obliged not too long after, is a pure run-stopping, gap-plugging 3-4 defensive end and projects very well into UCLA’s defensive scheme.

One position that UCLA has had trouble recruiting in this cycle is nose tackle. With the likelihood that current nose tackle Kenny Clark, one of the elite defensive linemen in the country, will leave for the NFL after his junior season in 2015, UCLA would absolutely love to have Clark’s direct successor lined up sooner than later. The Bruins thought they had the position filled with formerly committed recruit Bryce English, but the staff eventually soured on his lack of height and serious weight issues and, as a result, parted ways with English in October.

Although the Bruins missed on 4-star DL Benning Potoa’e (Lakewood, WA/Lakes), who decided to stay home and play for Washington, they still have a remaining big target in the trenches who they’d love to bring in to complete the class up front: 4-star DT Joseph Wicker (Long Beach, CA/Poly).

Go Joe Bruin identified Wicker last week as the most important recruit the Bruins could still nab and we stand by that for all the reasons we stated in that piece. Wicker projects as a devastating interior pass rusher, but won’t be the same immovable force who can hold up multiple blockers at the line of scrimmage that Clark is. The big man from Long Beach Poly will be taking his official visit to UCLA this weekend and the hope is that the visit will be enough to show Wicker why he should stay home and spurn Arizona State, who has put up a heck of a fight in this recruitment.

24/7 Sports currently lists UCLA as a slight favorite over ASU to land Wicker, and the percentages they list seem to be accurate regarding each school’s chances to land him:

UCLA continues to kick the tires with 4-star ATH Tyrone Wheatley Jr. (Manlius, NY/Canisius), the son of former Michigan and NFL running back Tyrone Wheatley Sr. Wheatley Sr. was just hired onto Jim Harbaugh‘s staff at Michigan though, so the Wolverines look like the big favorite with Wheatley Jr. Regardless, even if the younger Wheatley chose to spurn his father’s Wolverines and head west, he would still be likely to opt for USC over UCLA due to his father’s connection to USC tight ends coach (and former UCLA staffer) Marques Tuiasosopo, with whom Tyrone Sr. played on the Oakland Raiders about a decade ago.

LINEBACKER

At linebacker, UCLA secured an early commitment, way back in November 2013, from 3-star ILB Victor Alexander (Jacksonville, FL/Trinity Christian). Alexander is best described as a heat-seeking missile in human form. He’s an incredibly violent hitter and the type of tone-setter every defense needs. His recruiting film is just as eye-popping as the previous description would make it seem:

Alexander suffers in the recruiting rankings because his size (5’10”) offsets his explosive athleticism and thus limits his ceiling at the next level to an extent. Still, UCLA desperately wants to hold onto Alexander, who’s known as a tremendous leader in addition to being a fine talent, and will continue to work hard to maintain his commitment from all the way across the country until he faxes in his NLI on Signing Day.

UPDATE (1/31/15): Alexander flipped to Georgia Tech today while on his official visit.

The Bruins are going to need to kill it in 2016 to make up for a thinner 2015 class at the position, but it looks like they’re doing well so far with high-end (and, thankfully, in-state) linebacker prospects like Caleb Kelly, Lokeni Toailoa, and Camilo Eifler.

UPDATE (2/1/15): One of the most bizarre ends to a recruitment we’ve ever seen took another twist today when Alexander reportedly flipped back to UCLA a day after flipping to Georgia Tech. This one will not be over until Signing Day when Alexander sends a National Letter of Intent that will bind him to a school, but as of now, the Bruins are counting him back among their ranks.

The Bruins added another linebacker commitment in late July from 4-star OLB Josh Woods (Upland, CA/Upland). Woods was a bit off the radar, due to having to sit out his entire junior year in 2013 per CIF transfer rules, but has taken full advantage of his senior year at Upland and shown himself to be an instinctive and rangy player. UCLA is very happy to have spotted Woods at their summer camp and jumped on him quickly before other teams could see him play as a senior and try to snap him up once he revealed himself to be a high-ceiling recruit. Only 16 right now and with plenty of room to grow both physically and mentally, the sky is the limit for Woods.

Finally, UCLA landed a big-time pass-rushing prospect in 5-star OLB Keisean Lucier-South (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran) when he committed to the Bruins right before the UCLA-USC game in late November, which in retrospect was an accurate omen for what was to come that night. In the days leading up to his commitment, he had made it clear that his mind was made up and that he would be committing to his chosen school shortly. In the subsequent November Defensive Recruiting Big Board, we took this as a sign that Lucier-South would be choosing UCLA, his long-time leader. And it turned out that UCLA was indeed the school to land his much-coveted commitment.

Many talent evaluators have hailed Lucier-South as the next Anthony Barr, but to us, Lucier-South currently projects as a more athletic and physically larger version of current Bruins standout Deon Hollins:

To be fair, there is a remaining target at linebacker still in play. UCLA will be hosting 4-star ILB Roquan Smith (Montezuma, GA/Macon County) on an official visit this weekend. UCLA was the first school to offer Smith (two whole years ago) and he has maintained high interest in the Bruins throughout the recruiting process, mainly due to his extremely close bond with UCLA defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Smith is an outstanding inside linebacker prospect who many have compared to a smaller version of current UCLA LB/RB/dreamboat/global icon Myles Jack in terms of his skillset.

UCLA’s staff would do cartwheels if it could wow Smith enough on his official visit to land him, but few recruiting insiders down South give the Bruins much of a chance to pry Smith away from the clutches of in-state power Georgia.

Still, a linebacker class of Alexander, Lucier-South, and Woods will make the staff very happy come Signing Day. Landing Smith would simply be a very, very sweet icing on the cake should UCLA pull off that upset and land the man from Georgia.

DEFENSIVE BACK 

UCLA Bruins

Among UCLA’s DB targets, the top of the list has long been occupied by 5-star CB Iman Marshall (Long Beach, CA/Poly), who has been widely known as the best cornerback in the West since his freshman year at Long Beach Poly. In fact, UCLA was the first school to offer a scholarship to the man-child nicknamed “Biggie”, way back during that freshman season of 2011.

Marshall has shown UCLA quite a bit of public love in interviews and social media, and there’s no doubt that he has considerable affinity for Jim Mora’s staff and the UCLA football program as a whole. But Marshall (and his father) has long been known as a diehard USC fan since childhood and it is tough to shake the idea that Marshall is destined to end up across town. Mora and Co. have worked until the last minute to try to secure Marshall’s commitment, visiting Marshall last week at Long Beach Poly and hosting him on campus for an unofficial visit yesterday, but it remains extremely unlikely that Marshall commits anywhere other than USC.

However, UCLA has other recruits on tap who it wants to play in its secondary in the future. 3-star CB Will Lockett (Manvel, TX/Manvel) has been committed to UCLA since early August and profiles as an ideal Demetrice Martin cornerback: tall, long-armed, fluid, and physical. There was recently a scare with Lockett, who was close to flipping to Michigan after a recent official visit, but Lockett chose to stick with the Bruins in the end and is poised to sign with UCLA next week.

In early December, 4-star CB Colin Samuel (Long Beach, CA/Poly) joined Lockett in committing to UCLA. Samuel, who is a 6’3″, long-armed, fluid athlete with tremendous hips (yes, we know how you feel about hips, What’s Bruin Podcast host Bill Shirley), fits the exact physical profile that UCLA defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin typically looks for in the players he recruits at cornerback, so it’s no surprise that once Samuel’s senior film went out to coaches nationwide, Martin locked onto the Long Beach Poly star as someone he wanted to coach for the next four years.

After being somewhat lightly recruited for most of his senior season, Samuel’s stock exploded nationally after the release of his senior film. Oklahoma, Michigan, and Mississippi State were among the schools besides UCLA that offered him within a week’s span in mid-November. Michigan even made a renewed push for Samuel recently after the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. But the allure of playing at home for UCLA and Coach Martin was such that Samuel reaffirmed his Bruin commitment and will be signing with UCLA next week.

In addition to the commitments it already holds in the defensive backfield, UCLA is still pursuing two other targets for the secondary. 4-star ATH DeChaun Holiday (San Marcos, CA/Mission Hills) is a top 100 recruit nationally who would be a 4-star recruit at cornerback, safety, and wide receiver. He is the kind of dynamic athlete whom a school brings in with its class first and asks questions later about which position he’ll ultimately play.

Holiday has long been projected by the recruiting services as a defensive back and UCLA would likely try Holiday first at cornerback, where, as Bruin fans saw in the Alamo Bowl, the team has a desperate need for a lockdown player who can shut down an opponent’s best receiver. All indications are that Holiday should be a Bruin when he announces his commitment on Super Bowl Sunday.

UPDATE (2/1/15): As expected, Holiday committed to UCLA tonight.

And finally, UCLA wants to round out its defensive back class with 3-star S Nathan Meadors (San Bernardino, CA/San Gorgonio). Meadors is an explosive athlete who plays as a safety for his high school and, much like Samuel, saw his own late rise to prominence as his senior season progressed, with schools like Cal, Notre Dame, Oregon, and Oklahoma all heavily pursuing him once his senior film proliferated.

Meadors is thought to be down to UCLA and Notre Dame, and the thinking is that Meadors’s official visit to UCLA this weekend should sway him firmly in the direction of the Bruins. 24/7 Sports has UCLA as the clear favorite in the battle to win the recruitment of Meadors.

A class of Holiday, Lockett, Samuel, and Meadors in the secondary would make Coach Martin a very happy man come Signing Day, and he might literally walk on air if he could add the highly coveted Mr. Marshall to that group.