UCLA Football Recruiting: 2024 Early Signing Period Central
The 2024 football recruiting class becomes official starting today.
It’s a great day to be a Bruin!
That’s because the 2024 Early Signing Period begins today!
College football begins its Early Signing Period today and recruits can officially sign their National Letters of Intent today, instead of waiting until February.
Today is one of the biggest days on the college football calendar as high school recruits are able to sign their National Letters of Intent and officially announce their college decisions, even though there will be no coverage by ESPN or any other major network today. The Pac-12 Networks won’t have any coverage today either. I guess when ten of your twelve teams are heading to a new conference next summer, you don’t care about the future of those programs.
Overall, recruiting under Chip Kelly remains in the toilet. This year’s class is ranked 62nd in the nation. What’s worse than that, however, is that this year’s class is ranked 17th in the Big Ten. That’s out of 18 schools. Only Northwestern’s class is worse than Chip Kelly’s.
Even perennial doormat Rutgers has a better recruiting class than the Bruins do.
And, still UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond refuses to read the room.
Remember: These are 17- and 18-year old kids whose opinions can sometimes change on a dime.
There has already been one surprise today. Quarterback Henry Hasselbeck, the son of former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, has signed with UCLA this morning.
The big problem with the class is it’s still pretty small at this point. There are just 12 high school recruits to go along with four transfers who have committed so far.
The Bruins had 10 graduating scholarship players seniors on the roster this year and they have ten guys who have announced that they are entering the transfer portal. I previously covered eight of them in our Bowl Game Reset last week. Offensive lineman Spencer Holstege and kicker R.J. Lopez both announced this week that they will be entering the portal.
So, a recruiting class of just 11 high school recruits and four transfers leaves the team with some room to add more. Unfortunately, that probably means that Chip Kelly will look to the transfer portal for reinforcements.
Really, the only good news, of course, is that both high school and transfer recruiting doesn’t end today. High school recruits who don’t sign this week will be able to sign on the traditional National Signing Day in February.
Of course, there can be surprises today, but when your recruiting class is ranked 17th in your new conference, you probably shouldn’t expect many surprises.
I would feel a lot better about this class if this was what a new head coach had put together. At least in that case, there would be hope. Unfortunately, with Chip Kelly at the helm, there is very little hope amongst Bruin fans right now.
But one thing which won’t change is that we will continue to provide a warm welcome for those kids who have decided to choose to attend the greatest university in the nation.
Keep your browser pointed right here as we will be updating the list below as the NLIs come in.
High School Recruits
Transfers
Join us today as we welcome all the new Bruins to Westwood!
Go Bruins!!!
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Great writing and research per usual, Joe. I would only correct one slight factual error:
"Even perennial doormat Rutgers has a better recruiting class than the Bruins do."
..should be..
"Even soon-to-be-former perennial doormat Rutgers has a better recruiting class than the Bruins do."
.As you, I am also dismayed. The number of stars on that list resemble the Los Angeles heavens on a smoggy August night.
So here are some interesting statistics; Current transfer portal players (3* and above) still available (have not been signed and committed to a new school yet); 40. Out of this 40 number, you have 25 3*'s, 14 4*'s and 1 5* - Rivals.com. In addition, out of these 40, you have 15 Quarterbacks, in which UCLA already has 6! Not sure but if a lot of 3*, 4* and 5* players don't enter before Jan 2, 2024, the ole Chipster (OG) doesn't have much to select from, he will need to go down to 2* or below players - No surprise here. Of course, after Spring Practice (May 1 - May 15), he may be able to pick up some players, but these windows are closing quickly. So far, the Chipster (OG) has done a lousy job in the portal, losing way more talent than he has gained. He'd better hustle... Don't count on it.