UCLA Football Recruiting Updates

After some signing day drama turned into signing day non-drama, elite safety prospect Priest Willis has finally signed with the UCLA Bruins’ top-10 recruiting class.

Willis scared some UCLA supporters with the news that he wouldn’t be signing to the Bruins on Signing Day. A modest amount of panic ensued: was he headed to LSU? Was he a signing day surprise? Would Lane Kiffin steal him?

Bruins Nation discusses his overall rankings, and they are all pretty impressive.

Twitter: @K_Fitts93

Bruins Nation has to be thrilled. This is what they wrote up at the original commitment.

Ratings: Morris is a consensus three-star offensive tackle.

Here’s Bruins Nation on Johnson’s commitment.

While Priest Willis, Tahaan Goodman and Tyler Foreman will aim to lock down the backline of the secondary, Johnson will likely end up at corner, responsible for locking down the outside against the top receivers in the conference. Johnson is probably going to have a chance to crack the two-deep as both starting cornerbacks are departing and both backups are only sophomores.

The UCLA Bruins are getting quite the recruiting haul. Tahaan Goodman and Priest Wilis would be a great pair of safeties for any college football team to land in one class. But just for good measure they added Tyler Foreman to ensure long-term stability at the position.

Bruins Nation had this comment on Foreman’s abilities and how he could fit in at UCLA.

Here is the story of Goodman’s commitment to UCLA via Bruins Nation. Goodman committed on the same day as his good friend Priest Willis, who will be joining him in Westwood.

Derrell Warren of SB Nation wrote up a scouting report on Goodman this summer, mainly focusing on his physicality and his potential. Goodman is a hard-hitting player that tends to embrace contact and go after the football.

Here are some unique and original thoughts I had on Woulard’s ability for an SB Nation story.

Woulard is a dual-threat quarterback that figures to function quite nicely in the Noel Mazzone offense. Woulard has a lot of development to fully be ready to be a good collegiate quarterback, but he has all the tools in place to excel. Woulard also beat out numerous other great quarterbacks to win Elite 11 MVP honors in the famed summer camp, so all the talent is there. It just might take a year or two for him to be ready.

Redlands defensive end Kylie Fitts ended a whirlwind recruiting month by committing to the UCLA Bruins over schools like the USC Trojans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Fitts will join a UCLA team brimming with talent of all ages on the defensive line and will help make the Bruins more talented than ever in the defensive trenches.

Fitts figures to be in the mix to contribute immediately if he can condition himself right. He is one of the best edge rushers in this class and has the ability to overwhelm his man one-on-one with his physical nature alone. He has excellent burst from the line and is pretty much unstoppable when given a free release. Fitts is also good at evading double teams and just does a great job of playing the run and forcing running backs and quarterbacks to always be aware of his presence. Fitts also is adept at crashing the zone read and could come in handy against spread teams like Oregon and Arizona.

Fitts had been a longstanding USC Trojans commit, pledging back on April 14. It seemed to be an agreed understanding that Fitts would eventually sign with USC as an early entree so he could enroll for spring. However, that spot went to Leon McQuay III, and the Trojans had to tell Fitts that they would only be able to honor his scholarship if he waited and enrolled through the fall.

Ratings: Fitts is a consensus four-star defensive end.

Vitals: Fitts stands at 6’4 and weighs 241 pounds.

Twitter: @K_Fitts93

So, it’s UCLA poised to win the Pac-12 recruiting race this season. The Bruins seem set to capitalize on a 9-5 season that saw them come up a few snaps short of a Rose Bowl bid in Jim Mora’s first year.

When Mora took over in Westwood, there were worries about how ready he’d be to coach on the collegiate level. But he hasn’t had to worry too much about the coaching aspect, as Mora quickly assembled a staff of bright, young coaches with excellent recruiting prowess that allowed him to manage and not have to worry too much about excelling as a coach.