SOTC Update: UCLA Bruins

The Bruins faced a brutal schedule and rash of in-season injuries to make a mess of '24. If the offense can improve and the defense can replace a lot of talent leaving, a similar five wins is likely.

Mar 08, 2025

State of the Chart™ Recap Edition

Live All-In Ranking: 65th
Offense: 104th
Defense: 45th
2024 Results: 5-7 (3-6 in Big Ten)

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|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ SUMMARY

The chips were stacked against Deshaun Foster in his first season at the helm here. The Bruins played one of, if not the toughest schedule in the country. They had quite a lot of turnover on the roster and a brand new coaching staff, and to add a cherry on top — they suffered many impactful injuries during the season. Five wins is a victory in our book. The offense was downright bad all season, and it prompted a quick pivot at offensive coordinator. The defensive coordinator hire was most scrutinized with an internal promotion of Ikaika Malloe. He passed the test in a big way. The season finished stronger as the schedule weakened enough to allow for it. They still needed to win some games, and they did. They must turn over quickly as a new offensive coordinator, Tino Sunseri, comes in from Indiana and will work with a new quarterback, Joey Aguilar (Appalachian State). If this is going to turn around, though, the offensive line play must take center stage. That unit must improve and allow Sunseri’s vision to take hold and execute. They also lose a ton of personnel on the defensive side. The portal focus has been on getting bodies in for a completely undone secondary, but the linebacking corps is where we will see the biggest hit in talent. The 2025 schedule softens slightly, and we’ll see if Foster can take a step forward in his second season at the helm.

|||||| HEAD COACH AND COACHING STAFF

DeShaun Foster returns to his alma mater as head coach, a move that many questioned. It was a losing first season, but that is to be expected. The Bruins bought in later and finished strong to show that they can get there. His first portal class is looking strong, while recruiting is lagging behind. Getting the Bruins back to the winning side of .500 is the goal for 2025.

Coaching Staff Notes/Changes:

Foster put together a staff in his first season that, again, many wondered if it was setting them up for success. Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was one of those questioned positions. It was a news-making hire, bringing him back to the college ranks after an run in the NFL that included the coveted offensive coordinator role for Kansas City. He went to Washington where things unraveled. And, now, after one quite unsuccessful season in LA, he’s been fired. So, that’s 0-for-1 on the coordinator hires. He quickly moved to get Tino Sunseri from Indiana, a highly-respected quarterbacks guru and heavily involved in one of the best offenses in college football at Indiana.
Okay, so Bienemy didn’t work out. What about on the defensive side? Well, now, that appears to be a home run. Ikaika Malloe was a lesser known commodity who was hanging out on Chip Kelly’s staff as defensive line coach. He impressed enough to get the promotion to defensive coordinator after having learned from D’Anton Lynn, who went to USC after turning this unit into one of the best in the game in 2023. By all accounts, this one very much passed the test.
Other changes to the 2025 staff include at the offensive line coach position where Juan Castillo was let go and replaced by Andy Kwon, most recently the Arkansas State assistant offensive line coach. Just 30 years old, Kwon has already made a name for himself in the business and gets to earn his stripes in the Big Ten.
Burl Toler III comes in as wide receivers coach, pass game coordinator and will play an important role in recruiting. He is in from Cal-Berkeley where he held a similar position.
Scott White was promoted from a defensive analyst to associate head coach and inside linebackers coach.
Other new faces include Jethro Franklin (defensive line), Gabe Lynn (safeties) and AJ Steward (running backs).

Note: This is a “dynamic” article; meaning we will update any information that comes in this “off-season” and post a note when impactful moves are made or news breaks.

|||||| 2024 SCHEDULE / RESULTS ANALYSIS

The cards were certainly stacked against Foster putting up a big win total in his first year as head coach with this schedule. It actually ended up topping the list as the toughest schedule in all of college football. They did not take any breaks — no FCS teams, plus a trip to LSU in the non-conference made this one pretty brutal. Even the opener in Hawaii is never easy. They also drew a brutal batch of their new Big Ten brethren in their inaugural season in the new conference. The results were, well, expected. They snuck by the Warriors and proceeded to lose their first four games in conference play, sandwiched in there is the LSU loss. However, after that stretch, something clicked. The defense really started molding into a solid unit, and they went cross-country to beat Rutgers, enjoyed a bye, then packed up and went to Lincoln and beat the Cornhuskers. They then welcomed Iowa and found a way to sneak away with a win there, too. Our deserved win metric (dWIN) says they deserved a little better at 5.8 wins this season.

||||||| POSITION GROUP CHECK-INS

OFFENSE: Eric Bienemy’s group was, well, not good. At all. Their 18.4 points per game ranked 126th in FBS and that was just the beginning of the underlying problems with this unit. It all starts up front and the offensive line struggled in both run blocking schemes and pass protection. Foster wanted to establish the run and lean on that game a bit more, but it was just not happening. They had just 3.07 yards per attempt on the ground (128th). They were forced to pass more often and they just didn’t have the personnel to do so successful — especially when the defense knew what was coming. QB Ethan Garbers did what he could, but this unit was doomed. We don’t need to keep spitting bad stats at you to get the point across. With the change to Tino Sunseri, we will see more RPO (run-pass option) and spread looks that were deployed successfully at Indiana. This must be accomplished with less offensive firepower and an offensive line that needs a rebuild. That is to say, it will not be easy.

||| QB

Ethan Garbers was under duress for a good majority of the season. He did what he could and actually performed admirably under the circumstances. We got a chance to see the potential future here with Justyn Martin playing late in the season. Garbers graduates, and Martin will look to realize that potential at Maryland. They start over here and get Joey Aguilar (Appalachian State) out of the portal to take over for a season. He is a good athlete, which is good because he'll need to be. They also add 4-star Robert McDaniel in the ‘25 class to add to Dermaricus Davis, another 4-star in ‘24 as the potential future here.

||| RB

They had talent here and it was led by T.J. Harden, who chipped in as a receiver as well. He couldn’t go through another season fighting for every inch like a season ago. He entered the portal and has yet to find a new home. One backup, Keegan Jones, runs out of eligibility and Jalen Berger, who came in late last year from Michigan State (via Wisconsin) got some run and will return. As will former K-State back Anthony Frias II. Anthony Woods is added to the mix from Utah. Expect Berger to take the lead role as it stands today.

||| WR

This is another room with some solid individual talent, but the general offensive ineptitude kept them from showing much. Kwazi Gilmer emerged as a true freshman to lead the team in targets (48). Logan Loya was reliable out of the slot, while Titus Mokiao-Atimalala also chipped in. J. Michael Sturdivant all but disappeared. Rico Flores Jr. battled injuries and took a medical redshirt. Loya and Sturdivant transfer out. They bring in one of Aguilar’s favorite targets from App State in Kaedin Robinson, along with a couple of others with upside — Mikey Matthews (Utah) and Jaedon Wilson (Arkansas).

||| TE

Moliki Matavao was arguably the best player on offense here in 2024. He was looked to as a safety valve that was pulled many times when Garbers was running for his life. The former Oregon Duck pulled in 41 passes for 506 yards and two touchdowns. He’s off to the NFL. Backup Bryce Pierre has run out of eligibility. Jack Pedersen is next in line to take on a bigger role after getting some decent playing time in ‘24.

||| OL

Oh, the culprits. Blamed for much of the struggles on offense, this unit just couldn’t quite hold up against some truly mean opposition this season. They will undergo a substantial rebuild here, with three primary starters leaving via graduation or the portal. RT Garrett DiGiorgio returns and was their best lineman by a decent margin. They likely need an upgrade at center over Sam Yoon. They bring in four players via the portal, but none bring a big-time pedigree. New offensive line coach Andy Kwon has some work to do here.

DEFENSE: Foster entrusted Ikaika Malloe with this defense after being retained from the previous regime and promoted to defensive coordinator. We didn’t have a lot on him, other than he learned from D’Anton Lynn, who transformed this unit into one of the best in the country in 2023 before leaving for USC. They lost a lot of talent, but they got better as the season wore on. Facing one of the more difficult schedules, they were really mean up front and shut down the running game. Opponents managed 96.2 yards per game (ranked 6th in FBS) and 3.34 per carry (16th). Get this. They allowed just one (1) running play of over 30 yards all season long. This fueled success in other areas and led to 25.3 points per game allowed, which ranks 68th in FBS and may not be all that impressive on paper, but, again, they did it against the likes of Indiana, LSU, Oregon, Penn State, etc. This could have been even better if they had managed to get off the field on third down as they allowed a 51.6% success rate (130th). It's a good start for Malloe, but he really has his work cut out for him in 2025 with so many starters missing.

||| DL

It’s a bit alarming to see some of the player-level ratings of this group so low, but they still managed to have so much success stopping the run as a unit. They will lose their best player Jay Toia to the NFL. Many others return, including Keanu Williams, an Oregon transfer who played in just two games before a season-ending injury. Somebody will need to step up into Toia’s role, but they should be okay here.

||| LB

A lot of the success was fostered right here in the second level. They received great performances from Carson Schwesinger, Kain Medrano, and Oluwafemi Oladejo. All three will head to play on Sundays and that really hurts. Jalen Woods is the returner with the most experience and he got just 186 snaps in ‘24. They did hit the portal to get Isaiah Chisom (Oregon State) and Benjamin Perry (Louisville), but they have not yet shown Big Ten-level starter quality just yet. This is one to watch.

||| DB

Another solid unit that is ravaged mostly by graduations. The top six are all moving on and this will need a complete rebuild. The biggest losses will be FS Bryan Addison and NB K.J. Wallace. CB Kanye Clark was injured for the season in week four and getting him back will help, but they need a lot more. That’s why they hit the portal early and often here to bring in tons a lot of talent from across the country. Headlined by Ole Miss S Key Lawrence, they should be able to get close to last years production with the additions.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Luckily, the special teams was pretty darn good for a team that needed it with the offensive struggles. Kicker Mateen Bhaghani was brilliant, hitting 20/24 field goals and two of those misses were from 50+ yards. Punter Brody Richter left a little to be desired, but was not bad. Logan Loya and Keegan Jones handled most of the return duties and Loya shined as a punt returner. The punt coverage was good, allowing just 6.2 yards per return (ranked 51st). Both Bhaghani and Richter will return, but they’ll need to find new returners Loya moving on.

Reader feedback is requested and encouraged! Who knows these teams better than their passionate fan bases? We don’t pretend to know it all and would love your feedback. We will update/edit based (and credit) for anything that is brought to our attention. Let’s do this together…

|||||| TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER

Foster needs to hit this hard to make up for a lot of losses, mainly to graduation and he did just that with a focus on revamping a secondary that will be nearly a total flip from 2024. The loss of Logan Loya as a wide out and return man is going to be felt. RB T.J. Harden hasn’t committed just yet and maybe they can convince him to come back if they show some improvement on the offensive line. The additions of QB Joey Aguilar and WR Kaedin Robinson from Appalachian State will help determine if this offense can be turned around. Overall, the job was started here and they still have the spring window to continue to add.

Below is a screen shot of the full, live Transfer Portal Tracker over at CFBDepth.com. Click the image or the button below to view it in its entirety…

Live UCLA Portal Tracker >

|||||| 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

This first full recruiting class under Foster isn’t going to make headlines, but they are getting a couple of 4-stars in California to stick around. QB Robert McDaniel and RB Karson Cox are two names that the pundits like and feel can be impact players in the near future. They did also put a focus on the defensive line, getting five solid prospects as they know the importance of the lines of scrimmage in the Big Ten. They didn’t do the same on the other side (yet) with the offensive line bringing in just two players.

Here is a snapshot of the 2025 Recruiting Class+ with a link to the live page with updates throughout the cycle:

2025 UCLA Recruiting Class+ >

|||||| 2025 SCHEDULE LOOK AHEAD

This could not possibly be as difficult as it was in 2024. They still play formidable non-conference foes; this time, it is Utah, but they have to come to the Rose Bowl. UNLV will be going through a transition with Dan Mullen taking over for Barry Odom, so they may be down a bit and just getting their feet under them for that road trip in week two. New Mexico will also be down following a coaching change and a significant turnover on that roster. That leads to the Big Ten slate, which makes or breaks it from a difficulty standpoint. They get Penn State and Indiana again, but the Nittany Lions must come to LA. They do draw the National Champion Buckeyes in Columbus, which shoots this back up to the top. We don’t have final numbers on difficulty, but this is a top-15 most difficult again.

There is a lot of movement and decisions to be made throughout the off-season, including more portal moves, winter workouts and spring ball. Get all caught up with the full-on State of the Chart Magazine coming in July. If you missed the ad before, get more information and give us your e-mail to stay in the loop on everything SOTC!

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