UCLA football gains 16 players on 1st day of early signing period
Coach Chip Kelly has UCLA football’s 2021 recruiting class ranked No. 6 in the Pac-12 during his fourth recruiting cycle in Westwood. Kelly and the Bruins signed 16 prospects to their national letters of intent Wednesday. (Ashley Kenney/assistant Photo editor)
By Sam Connon
Dec. 16, 2020 7:07 p.m.
COVID-19 left its fingerprints nearly everywhere in 2020, and the most recent early signing period was no different.
Sixteen future Bruin signed their national letters of intent with UCLA football (3-3) on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period. Several of those players had previously committed elsewhere, but coach Chip Kelly chalked the indecision up to an unorthodox, pandemic-ridden recruiting cycle.
“A lot of kids were pressured into commitments early with (COVID-19) and not visiting and all those other things,” Kelly said. “Sometimes they get a chance to reassess where they were and what they were doing. We had stayed in touch with them, they were kids that we’d been recruiting for a while. And then as things got closer to the signing date, they decided that UCLA was the best spot for them.”
One of the players who Kelly and his staff had to flip was four-star defensive end Quintin Somerville, the No. 219 recruit in the country, according to 247Sports’ composite ranking, who had been committed to Michigan since June 20. Somerville left the Wolverines for the Bruins in part because UCLA defensive line coach Johnny Nansen had kept in touch with him, he told 247Sports’ Blair Angulo on Wednesday.
Somerville was one of four defensive linemen who signed with UCLA on Wednesday, along with three-star defensive ends AJ Campbell, Christian Burkhalter and Tyler Kiehne.
The only other signee with a four-star composite rating was athlete Devin Kirkwood, who committed to the Bruins in May but reopened his recruitment Dec. 7. After giving USC a chance down the stretch, Kirkwood reaffirmed his ties with UCLA, where his mother also went to school.
With just two four-stars locked in, UCLA’s 2021 recruiting class ranks No. 6 in the Pac-12. Kelly said he isn’t the biggest fan of the star system, however, and that he’s more focused on his own staff’s overall scouting process.
“I think sometimes when you get caught up in that, you may miss out on a Josh Kelley – I don’t think the Los Angeles Chargers cared how many stars Josh Kelley had,” Kelly said. “We have an evaluation process that we trust and go through from an academic standpoint to a character standpoint to a football standpoint of what’s the best fit for UCLA and what’s the best fit for this football program.”
Kelly said one of his goals in this cycle was to shore up the offensive line, which has had to pull over defensive linemen to fill out important roles in past years. Three-star offensive linemen Thomas Cole, Garrett DiGiorgio, Benjamin Roy and Noah Pulealii all signed their NLIs Wednesday.
Outside filling out the trenches, the group of linemen also took on the dual role of actively recruiting other prospects on Twitter over the past few months, something Kelly said helps bring them together as a class and build a culture in Westwood.
“I think this class as a whole is extremely tight; they’ve been together talking in group chats and all those other things that they do,” Kelly said. “They’ve done a good job of not only making a commitment here but just helping build another class. And so the Ben Roys of the world and that group, (DiGiorgio), those guys have been great leaders.”
Three-star safety Josh Moore, three-star receiver Keontez Lewis, three-star athlete Isaiah Newcombe, three-star receiver Ezavier Staples, three-star dual-threat quarterback Kajiya Hollawayne, three-star receiver DJ Justice and three-star kicker/punter Brenden Segovia rounded out the rest of the class. Former four-star receiver Kam Brown and former three-star safety Jordan Genmark Heath are set to transfer from Texas A&M and Notre Dame, respectively.
Only eight of Wednesday’s 16 signees hail from California, and while Kelly said the state will always be a good base for the program, he said he values fit and talent over geography.
“We’re trying to get the best student-athletes to represent UCLA,” Kelly said. “Kenny Easley came from Virginia. There’s been a lot of great players here – Troy Aikman was an Oklahoma guy. There’ve been a lot of great players from the state of California and we love California. That always will be the number one state represented on our roster. But we’re trying to get the best student-athletes out there.”
