Since taking the job as UCLA Football’s 19th head coach, DeShaun Foster has taken a hands-on approach to building out his roster. On Monday, he joined the 247 Sports Unfiltered podcast and he was asked about the method he uses to find talent.
“High school kids are like draft picks, and the portal is free agents. We wanna get in there. If we are recruiting you as a high school kid, we think that you’re a draftable kid, 1st 2nd or third round then. Or if we’re going in the portal, we have a hole that we’re trying to fill or we just haven’t developed a guy ready for that position. But we’ll stick to what is important; just get talent in there.”
“The roster building thing is really key, because that’s your culture. You gotta make sure that you’re putting in the right type of kids in this locker room, that really want to be here and don’t wanna hit the portal when things get tough. You gotta get through that and it’s a learning curve, but I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”
UCLA Football’s 2024 Recruiting Efforts
Foster’s main effort has been to make UCLA a desirable destination for recruits and transfer portal players. One major effort was hosting a Friday Night Lights spring game last month. UCLA football also added Eric Bieniemy as offensive coordinator in part because of his connections to the NFL.
His efforts are already bearing fruit. For instance, UCLA landed several high-profile commitments off one weekend of visits. Quarterback Madden Iamaleava and runningback Karson Cox both committed to the Bruins. Both are four-star athletes. They also secured the highly sought-after transfer cornerback, Kaylin Moore.
The Bruins will host four-star safety Jadyn Hudson this week and will host five-star offensive lineman Ty Haywood, four-star tight end Kaleb Edwards, and four-star linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, among others, over the next month.
247 Sports ranks the 2024 UCLA Football recruiting class as the 53 best in the nation. Last season’s was ranked 90th.
