Mikey Matthews didn’t walk into the Bruins’ receiver room looking to ease in. The first thing on his to-do list was to give his group one command.

“Make sure you write down every single note,” the sophomore wide receiver said to his teammates.

There was no grand speech or chest-thumping.

It was a simple reminder, enough for wide receivers coach Burl Toler III to recognize the asset that had just joined his receiving corps.

“He got here on a different level,” Toler said. “Within a couple of hours, he changed the culture. And that’s exactly what I expected.”

In UCLA football’s fifth spring practice, Toler described Matthews as a live wire on the field and the emotional accelerant behind a new Bruin era.

Toler’s move from California – his alma mater – to Westwood in December came with a familiar face in tow. Matthews, coming off a 6-7 losing season at Cal and a freshman season at Utah, said following his position coach was an easy call – especially with UCLA being the place he always hoped to land, having looked up to former Bruin wide receiver Logan Loya.

“He’s a great coach, very personable. He’s very down-to-earth, very easy to connect to,” Matthews said. “He’s a great human, teaching me things on and off the field, teaching me how to become a better man. It’s always bigger than football.”

Matthews said he’d been lugging around the playbook since mid-March – not taking a single day off from studying.

Toler tabbed him a “fire-starter” – someone whose presence raises the temperature of the entire wide receiver corps. Off the field, Matthews corrals his teammates to study the playbook early on Saturdays, and on the field, he can be seen everywhere – outside, slot, running back. And in the huddles, he’s Toler’s second voice.

“He pushes guys that are older than him. He brings up guys that are younger than him, and he brings energy,” Toler said. “A lot of it is nonverbal communication – I can look at Mikey, and he knows what time it is. He knows what he needs to do. He’s another coach in the room for me. … I see the same thing off the field that I see on the field with Mikey, and that’s pure leadership.”

UCLA’s receiver room needed that fire after last season. The Bruins’ wideout corps lost J.Michael Sturdivant, Logan Loya and Braden Pegan to the portal.

So when Toler arrived in Westwood – reuniting with coach DeShaun Foster after facing off in their collegiate playing days – he made one thing clear: He wasn’t just chasing talent. He wanted tone-setters.

“I needed somebody to come in and change the culture of the room,” Toler said. “Somebody to start the fire and get things going. So as soon as he (Matthews) hit the portal, I was able to get in communication with him. And it was kind of a no-brainer based on the relationship, me knowing what he can do.”

Matthews isn’t operating in a vacuum either. Foster has reengineered UCLA’s offensive staff into a think tank of sorts, handpicking coaches who thrive on collaboration. Toler said the staff operates like a lab – coaches scribble on whiteboards, share play concepts and cross-check position groups.

Collaborative by design, Matthews said each coach brings their own vision to the table – challenging one another and syncing their individual knowledge to serve a bigger goal.

“Part of the reason I came down here to UCLA was because of the staff and the assistants and the culture,” Toler said. “We really put our minds together and figure out what works best for our offense and what works best for our team and the culture. And putting guys in the right spot – that’s what our goal is.”

Foster isn’t rushing to make hard evaluations within his position groups – not until about practice 13. But the second-year Bruin head honcho likes the arc his young roster is on. He’s threading together portal additions such as Matthews with returners such as freshman wideout Kwazi Gilmer. He’s juggling a quarterback room in flux with a revamped receiver room that’s finding its voice.

And that voice, more often than not, sounds like Matthews’.

“You couldn’t tell who’s practicing and who’s not by the way they show up,” Toler said. “Everybody acts like a starter. And that’s how it has to be if we’re going to win.”