UCLA Football Recruiting: Bruins land tight end Matt Alaimo

The UCLA football team has been on fire on the recruiting trail in the last few weeks and continued that trend today as the Bruins received a commitment from 3-star TE Matt Alaimo.

The good times on the recruiting trail keep on rolling for the UCLA football team as they just added another player to their 2018 recruiting class. Three-star tight end Matt Alaimo (St. Joseph Regional/Montvale, NJ) is the 19th player to commit to the Bruins and the first tight end in the class.

RELATED: Recent commitments: DB Churchill, WR Hurt, LB Anderson, DB Guidry, DE Wade

The Bruins look to use the tight end element in Chip Kelly’s run-based, spread offense and Alaimo’s commitment only adds to their already talented group of TEs on the roster, including one of the most explosive big receivers in the nation, Caleb Wilson.

Kelly and his staff have been putting in a lot of work this last week as Alaimo is the sixth player in just over a week to commit to UCLA and the third in four days.

At 6’5″, 235 lbs., Alaimo is a matchup nightmare in the passing game. Not only does he have good hands, but he has excellent vision and the moves to break from potential defenders. And what about those lock-down opponents? With Alaimo, quarterbacks can simply go over their heads as Alaimo has the ability to reach up and snatch balls out of the air.

Another thing that works in his favor is his ability to block. Though it could use some fine tuning, those abilities will help him in Kelly’s offense which heavily relies on receivers blocking in RPO and zone read schemes.

Alaimo had taken his official visit last Friday and was apparently enamored with the program. Though he was expected to commit a few days ago, the pledge was stalled when Texas A&M swooped in and gave him an offer. As enticing as it might have been, the Aggies could not complete with the Bruins in what they could give the New Jersey native who is now headed to Westwood.

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Despite the addition, UCLA remains at #18 in the 247Sports 2018 recruiting class rankings and the 4th highest Pac-12 team behind USC, Washington and Oregon.

Welcome to Westwood, Matt!