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UCLA Football Recruiting Is Back On The Upswing

By Mike Regalado

Nov 21, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora during the second half against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. UCLA won 17-9. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 21, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Jim Mora during the second half against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. UCLA won 17-9. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports /
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Despite a few prospects backtracking on their commitments to the UCLA Football team, the Bruins have been doing very well in recruiting in the month of August.

This summer was a harsh mistress for the UCLA Football team in terms of recruiting. The Bruins had several decommitments and were at one point down to only four players for the 2017 class.

Related Story: DB Quentin Lake Commits to UCLA Football

The Bruins have had a total of seven players decommit from next season’s recruiting class, including a few high profile players like 4-star DE Hunter Echols and 4-star athlete Rahyme Johnson. After the last decommit (Echols), rumblings emerged from Bruin fans concerned about UCLA’s recruiting situation.

That has changed in the month of August as UCLA has been able to solidify 5 commitments with the latest coming from 3-star CB Quentin Lake.

All of these have coincided with the start of football activities heading into the 2016 season. With fall camp starting back on August 9, the coaches were getting their season started in the weeks prior. That also included a return to the recruiting trail.

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Why do I bring this up? It seems as though UCLA Football’s recruitng slips into a lull every summer. The notion appears to be that the Bruin coaches not only take time off for vacation (which is well deserved), but they also take time away from recruiting.

Though it worries Bruin fans, it should be known that this is not the case year round.

Under Head Coach Jim Mora, the UCLA Football program has been able to land Top 25 (and in a few cases Top 10) recruiting classes. In terms of recruiting, when the Bruin coaches are on, they are on.

That is evident with the recent upswing in recruiting the last two weeks.

It all started on August 2, when 3-star S Chris Wilson and 3-star CB Josh Shaw committed to the Bruins. Two days later, 4-star TE Jimmy Jaggers gave his pledge. Over the weekend, UCLA got another OL to commit as 3-star Oregon product Jaxson Kirkland gave his commitment to the Bruins.

Along with Lake, the Bruins now have eight players committed to the 2017 class along with 3-star OT Ronald Rudd III, 3-star OT Kanan Ray and the top DE in the nation, 5-star Jaelan Phillips.

Now mind you, the Bruins could have more decommitments in the future, but right now, the pattern looks positive for UCLA and their recruiting plan. With the coaches doing even more work as the season starts, we should continue to see more commitments than decommitments. Fingers crossed.

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Next: UCLA Recruiting: QB Prospcts Look Bleak

Though recruiting is a rough sea to navigate through, it is essential to the future of the program and right now the Bruins are in a better spot than they were a month ago. That is defeinitley something for the coaches to hang their hat on and it should only get better as we head to National Signing Day 2017.