You can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket.

Or, in the case of UCLA football and recruiting under first-time head coach DeShaun Foster, there won’t be a commitment without an initial offer.

It’s not just that the Bruins have been busy this week offering recruits, either. The targets have stretched both locally and nationally, with a host of Carolina recruits leaving Westwood with offers Monday, and Foster is making it a point to establish those relationships early with several underclassmen.

The latest example is Friday’s large group that consisted heavily of players from the Ground Zero 7-on-7 team. Accompanying that group was Armond Hawkins Sr., who also is the father of Bruins freshman early enrollee and four-star 2024 defensive back Khristian Dunbar-Hawkins.