This post was updated Aug. 28 at 4:34 p.m.

As UCLA football gears up for its second year under coach DeShaun Foster and second season in the Big Ten, Daily Bruin Sports will preview the personnel of each of the Bruins’ position groups and predict their 2025 outlook prior to the season’s official start. Assistant Sports editor Willa Campion will begin the series with a dive into the squad’s offensive linemen.

Personnel

Two of the offensive line’s most integral jobs to the team are protecting the quarterback and creating open lanes for players in the backfield. But UCLA football’s front line seemingly could not figure out how to do either last season.

Former Bruin quarterback Ethan Garbers sustained 32 sacks last season, tying for the most out of all Big Ten signal callers.

Similarly, the Bruins’ rushing attack ranked third to last in the nation with just just 86.6 ground yards despite former Bruin running back and 2024 Doak Walker Award preseason watch list honoree T.J. Harden leading the tailbacks.

Although the five men up front don’t shoulder all the blame for UCLA’s 2024 offensive woes, it’s fair to say that the position group enters the 2025 campaign with a lot to prove.

Returning to the offensive line is redshirt senior Garrett DiGiorgio and redshirt junior Sam Yoon at right tackle and center, respectively.

DiGiorgio brings a wealth of experience and leadership, having started every game, barring one due to a foot injury, for the past three seasons. In a position group that has seen its fair share of turnover, the 6-foot-7, 320-pound Oak Hills, California, local is an anchor that may stabilize the team’s inexperienced front line.

Yoon is beginning to earn his veteran status, after getting his first nod at center in week five of the 2024 season and never looking back, starting every contest thereafter in the middle of the line.

The 6-foot-5, 315-pound Pasadena local – alongside DiGiorgio, Niki Prongos, who transferred to Stanford, and graduates Josh Carlin and Spencer Holstege – helped increase the Bruins’ average yards per game by over 100 in the following five weeks.

Newly hired offensive line coach Andy Kwon also added transfers to the mix, filling the holes that Carlin, Holstege and Prongos left.

Likely starting at tackle opposite DiGiorgio is redshirt senior and former Kentucky player Courtland Ford. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound transfer played in 15 games across his past two years with the Wildcats, prior to which he carved a role for himself at USC for three seasons on an offensive line that earned a Joe Moore Award semifinalist selection in 2022.

Redshirt senior Reuben Unije will most likely occupy Kwon’s swing tackle position and offers more depth on the bookends of the front line. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound Houston transfer started the first four games of 2024 at left tackle for UCLA before suffering a season-ending injury.

Redshirt junior Julian Armella and redshirt senior Oluwafunto Akinshilo will likely assume the starting guard spots.

Armella – a Florida State transfer – is coming off three seasons as a reserve lineman, during which he played in 17 games. The former five-star recruit, who was ranked as the No. 5 interior offensive lineman in the nation in the 2022 recruiting class, should provide much-needed help across the Bruins’ special teams unit while also offering experience to the offensive unit.

Despite not playing his first year in Westwood in 2024 after transferring from Iowa State, Akinshilo is entering the 2025 season as the most likely pick for the left guard spot based on the starting unit reps he has received during fall camp.

Predictions

Kwon has a plethora of pieces to mesh together, and how he puzzles them together could make or break UCLA’s offense.

Kwon increased Arkansas State’s rushing yards per game from 88.2 to 162.1 between his first and second year helming the team’s offensive line unit, a feat he is likely looking to repeat at UCLA.

And with new high-profile offensive assets in redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava, and running back junior Jaivian Thomas, the offensive line has a newfound responsibility to help facilitate the Bruins’ skill players success.

If Akinshilo, Armella, Ford and Unije are able to build chemistry as a unit alongside returners DiGiorgio and Yoon, the Bruins could help solidify a much improved offensive arsenal – one that finishes much higher than last year’s fourth-fewest total offensive yards per game mark in the Big Ten.

If not, UCLA may once again lead the conference in forfeiting quarterback sacks – especially considering the 28 sacks Iamaleava suffered at Tennessee last season.

The spotlight may be on Iamaleava when the Bruins take the gridiron once again come late August, but an offensive line that has yet to play substantial snaps together will bear the responsibility of taking last season’s bottom-of-the-barrel offensive unit and turning it into a high-functioning attack.