It’s been more than four months since UCLA last picked up a commitment in the 2026 class, but the program has its sights set on a busy May and June.
Bruin Blitz and Rivals have already confirmed more than 30 names on the growing list of official visitors who will make multi-day trips to Westwood over those two months.
Second-year head coach DeShaun Foster bolstered his staff this offseason with proven influential recruiters such as secondary coach Demetrice Martin.
Fellow assistant Scott White, meanwhile, was promoted from defensive analyst to inside linebackers coach and associate head coach. The new position title was merely a formality after spending the 2024 season overseeing the position group to help free up defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe’s time during practices.
White brings his own strong reputation as a recruiter and shares Foster’s vision of restoring UCLA’s prestige as a destination for top talent.
“The recruiting has been strong,” White said after Tuesday morning’s practice. “We’ve been able to get back into the high schools and build relationships with guys and ultimately, too, just continue to build through the high school recruiting. Get out there, make the contacts and get ready to go on the road again here in early May and then we’ll have the kids come in here for OVs, a big OV time during May and June and then we’ll have our camp season.
“So all of that, in terms of recruiting, is going to really ramp up and you’ll start to see guys jump in the boat in the next month and a half to two months.”
Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks are among those White helped mold during his first stint with the Bruins from 2011 to 2017, and Carson Schwesinger is one of the more recent success stories as late first-round NFL draft buzz starts to surface.
Barr and Kendricks, though, were part of a 2010 recruiting class that was ranked eighth nationally by Rivals. It was one of eight top-15 recruiting classes the program has produced dating back to the start of Rivals’ database in 2002 and is tied with 2013’s group for the highest final ranking of any UCLA class.
Schwesinger came to UCLA as an unranked walk-on in the 2021 class, which was slotted 33rd by Rivals. Walk-ons, though, do not factor into the team rankings.
What followed was a steep nosedive from 64th (2022 class) to 55th (2023) to 84th (2024), as high school recruiting under former head coach Chip Kelly evaporated in favor of the transfer portal.
Foster, the running backs coach for seven seasons before taking over as a first-time head coach in February of last year, had to scramble after Kelly had secured just one commitment at the time of his departure to Ohio State. The Bruins were able to piece together a 2025 class that ranked 37th, as Foster and his staff secured 18 more signings.
But UCLA is still trying to convince the top talent in Southern California to remain in the area.
That also means competing with crosstown rival USC, which had a recruiting surge in March — one that’s still going — to the current top spot in the 2026 recruiting rankings.
The Bruins currently sit at 41st, with a class made up of four-star recruits Jonah Smith and twin brothers Jaron and Kennan Pula and three-star Kenneth Goodwin III — all receivers. Needless to say, there’s plenty of work to be done.
At least a dozen future official visitors moved up or maintained a four-star rating in the most recent 2026 player rankings, including at least seven visitors in the Rivals250.
Among those seven confirmed names are Georgia commit and slot receiver Vance Spafford (41st), linebacker Talanoa Ili (62nd), wide receiver Kaydon Finley (92nd), Tennessee commit and tight end Carson Sneed (108th), defensive end Khary Wilder (111th), offensive tackle Tommy Tofi (147th) and Smith (190th). That doesn’t include UCLA’s pursuit of five-star quarterback and former Florida State commit Brady Smigiel (23rd), who has yet to reveal whether the Bruins have secured an official visit.
Smith and Spafford are among the recruits currently on “flip watch,” with USC also targeting both players. Spafford recently told Bruin Blitz that new UCLA offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri’s philosophy lines up with his vision.
“He’s got great stuff going, just an amazing football mind,” Spafford said of Sunseri before his unofficial visit at the end of March.
Ili’s father, Glen, shared Tuesday on social media that White played a “big role” in his son’s decision to include UCLA in his top seven and schedule an official visit. Oregon and USC are expected to be among the biggest competitors in Ili’s recruitment.
UCLA has also mined the JUCO circuit, with edge defender Joshua Shanklin completing an official visit in March.
Most recently, the Bruins also got an early start on the spring transfer window by hosting former Stanford interior offensive lineman Jake Maikkula on an official visit this past weekend.
The 10-day spring transfer window opens April 16 and will be another chance to address immediate needs before the 2025 season.
The program is in the middle of a name, image and likeness (NIL) fundraising campaign to gear up for the portal. Since last week’s start to spring camp, several of Foster’s former players have shared testimonials on social media to help drive up interest.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the NIL collective Bruins for Life has raised more than $37,000 during the push. The tagline for the campaign: “It’s a Legacy,” with Foster donning a T-shirt featuring the slogan last week.
“Just the nature of the business right now that we need help with signing players,” Foster said. “It comes down to money sometimes. The more that we can raise money and find ways to support our current student-athletes and the ones that we want to bring in, the better off we’ll be.
“And I just like the fact that you can see people donate (on the website) and I can thank them. It’s just pretty cool to be able to — even if they gave $25, you know, I still want to thank them and let them know that still goes a long way.”
But it’s high school recruiting that remains the lifeblood for sustained future success, White said.
Among the big recruiting events to come will be the Friday Night Lights practice April 18 at Drake Stadium. Several targets from 2026 and future classes will be in attendance.
“Oh, it’s huge. Give me the young guys, that’s what I love,” White said. “We want to build through high school recruiting so we don’t have the mass exodus that we had last year because we’re filling out a little bit right now trying to replace 11 new starters. We want to be homegrown with the supplementation of the portal, so give me all those young high school guys.
“Obviously, we want to start right here at home and build a fence in our backyard because when you think about it, two of the very best college football players last year — Cam Skattebo over at Arizona State and then our own Carson Schwesinger — two guys right here in California, high school guys that a lot of people didn’t really want. So we want to build there, we want to start at home, we’ve got great high school football here, so let’s start there and then we’ll branch our way out.”
At the very least, UCLA is taking its share of big swings — it’s just of matter of time to see which ones land.
