An Introduction To The UCLA Football Recruits of 2016: Running Backs

Oct 18, 2014; Berkeley, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins running back Paul Perkins (24) runs with the ball after making a catch for a 49-yard touchdown against the California Golden Bears in the second quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

In the 2016 class, picking up one running back should be more than sufficient to fill UCLA‘s needs, given the fact that it brought in the #1 RB nationally in the 2015 class, Soso Jamabo (Plano, TX/Plano West), and the #1 RB in California, Bolu Olorunfunmi (Clovis, CA/Clovis North). With Jamabo and Olorunfunmi joining a backfield that already features the Pac-12’s reigning rushing champ (and 5th-best running back in the conference) Paul Perkins and emerging bulldozer Nate Starks, the Bruins look to be well set at the position for the foreseeable future.

However, among that current group, there is no pure, elite speed threat. Jamabo would come the closest, but his ability as a home-run hitter derives from his long strides and moves in the open field more than any inherent track-star qualities.

As a result, because he would be a piece that UCLA’s offense has been missing out of the backfield for a while and because he’s a long-time UCLA fan who attends a local school that has turned into a pipeline of sorts for the Bruins, Sean McGrew is logically the highest-priority running back target on UCLA’s board in 2016. 

UCLA Bruins

The uncommitted offerees (per Bruin Sports Report):

4-star Sean McGrew (Bellflower, CA/St. John Bosco)

4-star Melquise Stovall (Lancaster, CA/Paraclete)

4-star Matt Falcon (Southfield, MI/Southfield)

4-star Robert Washington (Huntersville, NC/Southlake Christian)

3-star Vavae Malepeai (Mililani, HI/Mililani)

3-star D’Vaughn Pennamon (Manvel, TX/Manvel)

3-star Jalin Buie (Jacksonville, FL/Trinity Christian)

The main target:

Sean McGrew

Possessing quick acceleration, legitimate 4.4 speed, soft hands, great balance, and outstanding vision, McGrew is a great fit for Noel Mazzone‘s offensive scheme. He is a one-cut runner who sees a hole and hits it hard. It’s not an exaggeration to say that McGrew runs like he was a shot out of a cannon. Observe some of the most eye-popping running back film you will ever see:

The biggest knock on Sean McGrew is something completely out of his control: his size. Generously listed at 5’8″ and 175 lbs, he doesn’t have a frame suitable to be a 25-carry-a-game running back in the Pac-12.  However, as football evolves and the running back position becomes one in which duties are shared by multiple backs in order to keep everyone fresh and limit the abuse that the players take, this isn’t as big an issue as it would have been in previous eras of the sport.

Ultimately, McGrew projects to be what Damien Thigpen was in 2012 for UCLA: a diminutive speed demon who will carry the ball approximately 10-15 times a game, catch 3-4 passes a game, out-run the angles of tacklers, and be a versatile threat to score who will strike absolute fear into the opposing defense whenever he’s on the field. In an interesting note, McGrew is also the punter for his high school and he has been used very creatively there on different types of fake punts. Safe to say, he’ll be a Swiss Army knife of a weapon for whichever school he ultimately chooses.

UCLA has been the long-time favorite to land McGrew’s commitment, ever since the Bruins became the first team to offer him a scholarship back in February 2014. However, Washington has come on very strong for McGrew recently. It still seems fair to say that UCLA is the favorite for McGrew as his announcement looms at the end of April. But this was once considered a done deal for the Bruins; that no longer is the case. Washington has a very legitimate shot of landing the 4-star running back and pulling an upset no one would have imagined just two months ago.

For what it’s worth, 24/7 Sports’s Crystal Ball has UCLA as a slight favorite over Washington to land McGrew, but the most recent projections of its experts have McGrew heading to the Pacific Northwest. Running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu and the rest of the UCLA staff will have to recruit McGrew harder than ever over the next month to ensure that the ultimate rarity, a stud recruit in Southern California who actually grew up rooting for UCLA over USC, doesn’t slip from its grasp.

Should McGrew choose Washington or any other school besides UCLA, it would be interesting to see where the Bruins would turn, with the running back pool in California being extremely shallow in 2016 and the only other local four-star running back, Melquise Stovall, being a heavy USC lean. Recent commit Demetric Felton is a high school running back, despite being recruited by UCLA as a slot receiver, and could potentially be moved there in order to paper over any cracks. So there is a potential contingency plan in place, but Jim Mora and company are hoping that McGrew makes any worst-case planning moot by choosing to be a Bruin.

Previous Introduction to the 2016 Football Recruits articles: Quarterbacks