There are some signs of life in UCLA football's recruiting today. Yesterday the Bruins picked up a "big" 6-8 OL commitment - Will Oliver - from Northern California. We welcome Oliver to Westwood and hope he will learn something from Bob Palcic, one of the best OL coaches in the country.
Reportedly Bruins also picked up two more commitments in last day who can be considered as interesting prospects. Bruins picked up a defensive tackle from their back yard:
Brandon Tuliaupupu, 6-2, 290-pounder who is ranked the 101st best defensive tackle prospect in the nation, has verbally committed to UCLA, according to good sources.
Tuliaupupu, from Claremont (Calif.) High, verbally committed to Washington State earlier this month, but he then received an invitation to visit UCLA officially last weekend. On the visit UCLA offered him a scholarship and the source informed us that Tuliaupupu accepted it.
They also received a commitment from an "athlete" in Massachusetts, who had previously committed to Iowa (a solid Big-10 program):
Mike Orloff, the 6-2, 215-pound athlete from Massachusetts, who was previously committed to Iowa, has now verbally committed to UCLA.
Welcome to both of these guys. We have some videos on both of them.
Here is Tuliaupupu:
And here is Orloff:
I am not a professional scout and I will never attempt to be one. So I will not try to offer any "expert" analysis from those videos. I remember Darius Bell looking very good in his highlight videos too. I still like the idea that Orloff was recruited a program like Iowa, which has a track record of putting together physical teams and Tuliaupupu could provide valuable depth at DT. Welcome to both of those guys.
I wonder if those guys have any info. on the next Bruin DC. Bruins now have a total of 12 commitments with Torian White being a "soft verbal." As critical as we have been of the recruiting effort, it is fair to say that they are showing some signs of life. We will see if they have more surprises for us tomorrow.