Three-star ATH pledges to UCLA

It was around 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning when Octavius Spencer realized he was done.

The Monrovia (Calif.) athlete had taken visits to Oregon and Purdue and he had been fielding calls daily from coaches all over the country. But on Tuesday, when he woke up, he decided he had seen enough.

He called Demetrice Martin and told him he wanted to be a Bruin.

"I feel like it was time to get the recruiting process over with," Spencer said. "I was ready. I feel like (UCLA) is where I want to be for the next four years."

Spencer was a late bloomer in this year's recruiting process, only holding an offer from Sacramento State until last month when Martin called. After the UCLA offer, his recruitment took off, and he earned scholarships from Oregon, Purdue, Cal and Washington.

Yet no school offered him as much as what Martin and the Bruins did. So he decided this week UCLA was the place for him.

"Me and coach Meat, we've had a good relationship ever since he kind of recruited Ellis (McCarthy) out of Monrovia," Spencer said. "We've had a good relationship ever since. And the education is second to none. With Jim Mora being the head coach and him having NFL ties and how they run their program over there like an NFL program, it just made me want to be there even more."

Spencer is a dynamite returner who can play cornerback, safety or wide receiver at the next level. He said ideally, he'd play both ways at UCLA. But for now, he'll come in as a cornerback under Martin.

"They want me for an athlete, so they want me to play both ways," Spencer said. "I'm going to start off as a corner because it's a harder process and it's harder to learn the plays on defense than it is on offense so I'm going to start off at DB and I'm going to work my way to receiver as well."

Spencer finished this season with 692 receiving yards and eight scores on 31 catches on offense. On defense, he logged 44 tackles and two interceptions.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound athlete said he'll take his official visit to UCLA on Jan. 16 and then will have an in-home visit with Jim Mora and other Bruin assistants next month as well.

Spencer said those will be the only two things left in his recruiting process.

"I'm done," he said.