UCLA Football Recruiting: Go Joe Bruin Predicts UCLA Football’s 2016 Signing Day Finish
With less than 24 hours to go until National Signing Day madness ensues, we can finally see the finish line for the 2016 UCLA Football recruiting class. Even though the end is near, there still is a lot of a uncertainty as to what the final composition of UCLA’s class will be.
There are nine uncommitted recruits still seriously considering UCLA and the Bruins seem to have a legitimate chance of landing all nine. Now, because this is recruiting and these are teenagers, decisions can change on a whim and the odds of UCLA ultimately landing them all are very low.
But Jim Mora and his staff have done fantastic work in the last couple of weeks to get UCLA this far with so many high-end recruits and, with a little nudge over the finish line, a pretty good recruiting class (currently ranked 15th in 24/7 Sports’s Composite Team Rankings) will become that much better.
Without further ado, here are our predictions heading into Signing Day (ordered from lowest to highest by star rankings per the 24/7 Composite Index):
PREDICTIONS
Francisco Perez (Baldwin Park, CA/Baldwin Park)- 3* OL
UCLA Bruins
A longtime commit to Cal, Francisco Perez has stayed nominally committed to the Golden Bears for the last few months as UCLA has worked its way into the thick of his recruitment.
On Signing Day, Perez will be choosing between the two flagship UC schools and he seems to be torn between staying local with UCLA and honoring that longstanding commitment to Cal.
We’re going to say that Perez’s relationship with UCLA offensive line coach and ace recruiter Adrian Klemm combined with the opportunity to go to school and play football so close to home will tip this one the Bruins’ way to give UCLA a final infusion of offensive line beef in this class, but we could legitimately see this one going either way.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: Moderate
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Brandon Stephens (Plano, TX/Plano)- 3* RB
As we noted in the Final Offensive Recruiting Big Board, running back Brandon Stephens is a very late entry onto UCLA’s recruiting radar. After decommitting from Stanford on January 21, Stephens quickly garnered national interest, but it was UCLA that was able to convince Stephens to come out and take an official visit on the final weekend of the recruiting cycle. It would be quite a coup for the Bruins to land a nationally-touted running back, with offers from powers like Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Texas, in such a whirlwind manner so close to Signing Day.
Given that Stephens only took one official visit during his entire recruitment because his Stanford commitment took him off the market for so long, it seems likely that UCLA’s late surge to land Stephens will pay off with the Bruins landing a player who looks like a Paul Perkins/Nate Starks hybrid and fits perfectly with the shift to a more power-oriented offensive system under new offensive Kennedy Polamalu.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: High
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Audie Omotosho (Plano, TX/Plano East)- 3* WR
Unlike fellow Plano native Brandon Stephens, wide receiver Audie Omotosho is a recruit who has been on UCLA’s radar for a long time.
His recruitment even took on a controversial tone among some Bruin fans in mid-December when the Bruins seemed to drop their recruitment of local 4-star receiver Javon McKinley (Corona, CA/Centennial) because they were so sold on Omotosho and seemingly convinced that the Texan would follow in the footsteps of Soso Jamabo by blazing the trail from Plano to Westwood.
Since that time, though, Omotosho has seemed to cool on UCLA as local schools TCU and SMU finally caught onto the talented player in their own backyard and started recruiting him to stay and star in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
He took an official visit to UCLA last week and reportedly enjoyed it, but the prediction here is that the allure of playing for an ascendant program in his backyard is too much for Omotosho to ignore when he sends in his National Letter of Intent on Signing Day.
Our pick: TCU
Confidence: Moderate
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Brandon Burton (Gardena, CA/Serra)- 4* ATH
We are cheating a bit by including Brandon Burton in the piece, since he will technically be announcing his commitment on Signing Eve tonight (February 2) at around 9 p.m. PST on the late ESPN SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt. Nonetheless, Burton has been a priority target of UCLA and defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin for quite some time.
In the Final Defensive Recruiting Big Board, we detailed the drama behind Burton’s decision to delay his original intent to commit to UCLA in early January and the surprising late entry of USC into his recruitment.
USC’s presence in the decision-making of any recruit from Serra is going to make UCLA fans understandably squeamish. But coming off Burton’s official visit to Westwood last weekend, we’re going to take a leap of faith and say Burton will honor UCLA’s long-standing and dogged pursuit of him and make a choice that will earn him the ire of most at his high school, but the love of a fanbase that has waited a long time to say that a Serra recruit chose UCLA over USC.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: High
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Garrett Rand (Chandler, AZ/Hamilton)- 4* DT
It is a credit to UCLA defensive line coach Angus McClure‘s persistence that the Bruins are even in the reckoning for Garrett Rand, a star defensive tackle who has long been committed to Wisconsin, so close to Signing Day. We can’t shake the feeling, though, that Rand has long been set on becoming a Badger and that UCLA is going to come up just short in the end despite its hard push in the last few weeks.
Wisconsin got the last shot at Rand last Thursday when their new defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox flew out to Rand’s home in Arizona to put the finishing touches on Rand’s recruitment.
Rand has also never been one to enjoy attention or hubbub and we think that he will see himself as a better personality fit in the heartland than in the heart of West LA. For both those reasons, look for Rand to affirm his commitment to Wisconsin by sending the Badgers his National Letter of Intent in 24 hours.
Our pick: Wisconsin
Confidence: Moderate
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Aaron Hansford (St. John’s College/Washington, DC)- 4* ATH
Guys who stand at 6-foot-2, weigh 210 pounds (with room to grow), and run 4.5 in the 40-yard dash just do not come along very often, so UCLA will be fervently hoping that the athletic marvel that is Aaron Hansford chooses to become a Bruin when it is all said and done.
A player who has long been recruited by UCLA but only seemed to emerge as a realistic target for the Bruins in the last month, Hansford has cut his list down to a final two of UCLA and Texas A&M, with the Aggies seeming to have some buzz. Bizarrely, that is thanks to Hansford’s loyalty to (of all people) former UCLA and new Texas A&M offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, who was the first coach to show enough faith in Hansford’s offensive skills to recruit Hansford exclusively at his preferred position of wide receiver rather than his long projected position of linebacker.
Hansford is rumored to be torn between his faith in Mazzone and, as would seem logical given his current residence in Washington D.C., the lifestyle that UCLA would offer in contrast to Texas A&M. We’re going to say that, with A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin firmly on the hot seat in College Station and the depletion of the Aggies’ quarterback depth chart, Hansford will choose the lifestyle of Westwood, the job security of Jim Mora, and the opportunity to catch passes from Josh Rosen by becoming a Bruin on Signing Day.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: Low
24/7 Crystal Ball:
Boss Tagaloa (Concord, CA/De La Salle)- 4* DT
Of the uncommitted recruits still remaining for UCLA, there is a very convincing argument to be made that Boss Tagaloa is the most important for the Bruins to reel in because of the gaping hole left in the UCLA defense by the departure of star defensive tackle Kenny Clark to the NFL Draft. With his size, strength, agility, and low center of gravity, Tagaloa can be the multi-year fixture at nose tackle that is the fulcrum of any truly successful 3-4 defense.
Having offered Tagaloa when he was just a high school sophomore, UCLA is Tagaloa’s long-time favorite school and it has seemed likely for a while that Bruin defensive line coach Angus McClure’s persistence in recruiting Tagaloa would lead to a UCLA commitment.
Tagaloa has visited schools like Michigan, Washington, and USC with close friend Devin Asiasi (who we will preview in a moment) in the last few weeks, which has made UCLA sweat its putative status as the prohibitive favorite in his recruitment. But the smart money still has the best nose tackle in the West choosing to be a Bruin when Signing Day rolls around.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: High
24/7 Crystal Ball:
Devin Asiasi (Concord, CA/De La Salle)- 4* TE
On Signing Day, UCLA fans will be hoping to land all of the recruits we will mention in this piece, but there will be an extra bit of investment in the decision of Devin Asiasi because his commitment to UCLA would not only constitute a huge pickup for the Bruins, but a gigantic blow to the class of crosstown rival USC.
Alabama, Michigan, and Washington have all caught the attention of Asiasi at various points in the past year, but Asiasi seems to be most heavily weighing the two Los Angeles schools in the final hours before Signing Day.
Asiasi has never hesitated to point out of lifelong USC fandom, which has led many to believe he will find his way into USC’s recruiting class somehow. He visited UCLA a month ago with close friend Boss Tagaloa, who is Asiasi’s teammate at powerhouse high school program De La Salle, and visited USC, once again with Tagaloa, this past weekend.
It has definitely helped UCLA’s cause with Asiasi that it hired the coach who was recruiting him to USC: new Bruin quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo. If any coach out there can lure Asiasi to Westwood, it is absolutely Tuiasosopo, the legendary Polynesian, Rose Bowl-winning quarterback at Washington who won Pac-12 Recruiter of the Year in 2015 as part of the USC coaching staff.
UCLA has absolutely battled to the end in this one and seems to be the team with the most buzz in Asiasi’s recruitment at the moment, but it is hard to escape the feeling that the traditional post-official visit high coupled with his long-term rooting interests will lead Asiasi to become a Trojan when it is all said and done. But UCLA is very much in the reckoning, which itself is a surprising turn of events from even two months ago when the big tight end’s choice of USC seemed to be a foregone conclusion, and could very easily be Asiasi’s pick tomorrow.
Our pick: USC
Confidence: Very Low
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
Mique Juarez (Torrance, CA/North)- 5* LB
Last but not least, we get to the recruit who would be the undisputed crown jewel of UCLA’s 2016 recruiting class should he choose to become a Bruin. 5-star linebacker Mique Juarez has been UCLA’s highest-priority target since last spring, when Bruins’ linebackers coach Scott White made it his singular mission to land the top overall recruit in the state of California.
As we have long mentioned, Juarez is the rare Southern California blue-chip recruit who grew up in a household of UCLA (as opposed to USC) diehard fans. The Bruins, who have been considered the heavy favorites to land Juarez ever since he decommitted from USC in the fall, have had to hold off the hard charge of two SEC schools: Alabama and Ole Miss. But with a Bruin family in his corner and a year’s worth of nonstop love from the Bruin coaches, we’re going to say that Mique Juarez gives UCLA fans a great reason to whoop and holler when he sends his National Letter of Intent to Westwood on Signing Day.
Our pick: UCLA
Confidence: High
24/7 Sports Crystal Ball:
SUMMARY
Our predictions have UCLA closing out its recruiting class with one 5-star recruit, three 4-star recruits, and two 3-star recruits. According to 24/7 Sports’s Class Calculator feature, adding the potential commitments of those recruits to UCLA’s already-existing class would place the Bruins firmly in play for a Top 10 finish in the national team recruiting rankings. That would be a really nice close to the 2016 recruiting class overall should it all come to fruition on Wednesday, and it could get even better if those predicted commitments are supplemented by more suprising ones from Asiasi and Rand.
Next: 2016 Could Be Jim Mora's Best Recruiting Class
See you all bright and early Wednesday morning for the beginning of the insanity that is National Signing Day!