Another player who could come in and play for the Bruins is linebacker Wesley Walker (6-2, 215, 4.6) who played for southern California powerhouse La Puente (Calif.) Bishop Amat.

The freshmen are due to check in on August 12th to get themselves acclimated to the dorms, get their physicals and weigh in.

Drills will start a couple of days later.

Walker is working out with the program that the Bruins sent him and he’s also working out with his cousin Gray McNeill. McNeill played at San Diego State and signed a free agent deal with the Baltimore Ravens, but failed his physical.

Walker benches a pretty impressive 365 pounds and squats 405. The last time Walker was tested in the vertical he had cool 33-inch VJ and that was as a junior.

Walker is working diligently to get himself ready for the season with a hope to see PT as a true freshman. “I’ve been told to come prepared to play,” Walker said. The Bruins are a bit thin at linebacker so the opportunity is there for a freshman or two to see action this fall.

Walker plays Will backer and he could see action if he’s ready and if the staff feels he’s not, he will red shirt.

“I would rather come in and play,” Walker said. “But if I don’t I’m okay with red shirting. There are positives to both situations.”

UCLA had tremendous competition for Walker’s services. Stanford, Oregon, Notre Dame and Florida were the finalists for Walker. All of the competing schools offered.

“UCLA was the right fit for me,” Walker said. “UCLA had the right balance of academics and athletics for me. The opportunity for early playing time was also available at UCLA.”

“I committed late so I was able to really check things out and everything just came to together for me at UCLA,” Walker said.

Walker was the number two rated linebacker from the Western Region according to PrepStar magazine.

This is what BruinBlitz had to say about the talented Mr. Walker in our LOI wrap-up earlier in the year:

LB Wesley Walker (6-2, 215, 4.6) from La Puente-Bishop Amat (CA) was one of the most underrated players on the West Coast going into the season by season’s end, Walker had offers from UCLA, Stanford, WSU, Fresno State, SJSU, CSU, Utah, Utah State and New Mexico State. He even had a visit scheduled to Florida, but canceled it after committing to UCLA. Wesley was selected League Defensive Player of the Year after racking up 125 tackles, four fumbles caused, three fumble recoveries and two sacks.