UCLA Football Recruiting: Updated Rankings, More on Fuller’s Commitment & Other Quick Hitters

Let's start what is shaping up to be a pretty great week with a quick reset for the National Signing Day. Right now UCLA has 26 recruits committed for the class of 2012. Bruins as of this morning are ranked number 8 on Scout.com and number 12 on Rivals.com. With 2 days left till signing day Bruins are going to be on holding pattern for few more blue chip recruits. I will share this blurb from SBNation's UCLA capsule on our remaining targets (prepared by none other than BN's AHMB):

Moving forward, UCLA has a legitimate shot at a number of highly ranked prospects. Most notably, five-star safety Shaq Thompson and five-star WR Bryce Treggs are both looking at UCLA following Tosh Lupoi's exit from California, as are other former California commits four-star receiver Jordan Payton, four-star defensive tackle Aziz Shittu, and to a lesser extent, five-star lineman Arik Armstead. Others currently in the mix are four-star linebacker Seth Jacobs, four-star WR Kodi Whitfield, four-star quarterback Devin Fuller, three-star receiver/cornerback Randall Goforth, three-star offensive tackle Simon Goines, three-star athlete Kenny Walker, three-star linebacker Jeremy Allison and three-star receiver Javon Williams. Signing day will be hectic in Westwood, and the Bruins faithful are definitely anxious to see how it plays out.

Armstead is off the board (Oregon). Whitfield also shore up his commitment to Stanford (which is not a surprise). None of that should put a damper on UCLA's recruiting as we got amazing news yesterday when Fuller decided to jump on the growing Bruin bandwagon. If you have not seen it yet, you can check out the video of Fuller's commitment here and also a YouTube "movie" of Fuller's senior year highlights at the Old Tappan HS in New Jersey. Here were Fuller's quotes published in local NJ.com:

"I just like everything about UCLA. I'm excited about working with coach Mora in that offense. It makes it a lot easier when my family is out there, too."

It seems quite likely that the talented Fuller, who ran and passed for more than 10,000 yards and 100 touchdowns in four years at the Bergen County school, will be a good fit, just as he figured to be at any of his final five options.

I think it is worth noting what a big deal Fuller's commitment to UCLA really is. With Fuller's commitment UCLA for the second straight year will have an elite athlete coming in to play QB. Not to mention with Brett Hundley and T. J. Millweard, Bruins now have some solid pieces to work with to build out viable depth at this position for the first time in years.

We will see if Fuller ends up playing QB at UCLA but either way Mora adds an elite athlete in our roster, who will hopefully be put in position to contribute at other skill position such as WR as well. Either way Fuller is a fantastic get for UCLA, who gives us yet another reason to be excited about upcoming signing day.

Now we are sure many Bruin fans are greedy and are thinking about flipping elite recruits committed to other Pac-12 schools. However, from my stand point I am already excited with what Mora has put together. Once Mora got here, my expectation was for Mora to finish with a top-20 class that would address our depth issues at OL, DB, WR, get us at least one solid QB and an elite DL. So far this class appears to have filled all those needs except for stocking it with WRs. Thankfully the Bruins are still in running for few good WRs and there is a good shot Bruins may be able to nab couple of more on signing days.

Some other quick recruiting quick hitters that I thought were worth noting:

• TX OL Simon Goines is down to UCLA and Missouri and will decide on Wednesday (signing day). UPDATE: this "Mizzou".
• Former Bruin commit OL Mario Yakoo from Spring Valley (Calif) Steele Canyon ended up committing to Boise State. That's a great landing spot for him. We wish him luck.
• ICYMI there was a really interesting note from Sacramento area reporter Joe Davidson. He identified UCLA and Oregon as the only two schools, that were not doing any negative recruiting (at least around the 916 area code). Perhaps not a coincidence that Arimstead ended up committing to the Ducks.
• Speaking of the Sacramento area Jacob Ruffman has a pretty nice Q&A wit Bruin commit Nate Iese. According to NI Mora and UCLA LB coach Jeff Ulbrich see him as "a hybrid linebacker who can put his hand in the dirt and rush the passer but also be able to drop back into coverage." They told Iese they may play him a "bit" at TE if they "need" him there.

So those are the notes to start this Monday am. If you have other recruiting tidbits you want to share that have not been blogged on the homepage or in the fanpost/fanshot sections yet, please share them in the comment thread.

GO BRUINS.