UCLA Football 2025 Depth Chart Roundup: Left Guard

As UCLA's first practices loom ahead of the 2025 season, DeShaun Foster has cultivated a roster through recruiting and the transfer portal, ready to improve on last season.

Finishing their first season in the Big Ten with a 5-7 record, it's only up from here for the Bruins. With that being said, let's dive into UCLA's projected depth chart this upcoming season and how analysts view they'll impact UCLA. Up next, the linemen projected by Bruin Report Online's Tracy Pierson to round up UCLA's left guard position.

Oluwafunto Akinshilo, Redshirt Senior

Akinshilo transferred from Iowa State to UCLA ahead of the 2024 season, but sat out due to injury. He enters this season with one (possible) year of eligibility and is projected as the Bruins' starting left guard.

"Akinshilo was the primary one that we observed. The transfer out of Iowa State came in before last season and sat out the year with an injury. He's originally from Leuzinger High School, and then spent a year at El Camino before transferring to the Cyclones. He didn't see any game action with Iowa State, though, so he's yet to play a snap of major college football. There's also a chance that Reuben Unije ends up starting at right tackle, pushing Garrett DiGiorgio inside to right guard, which would also be another solution. Still, Akinshilo has clearly done enough to put himself near the top of the depth chart, and figures to be part of any competition in fall camp." -- David Woods, Bruin Report Online

Eugene Brooks, Redshirt Freshman

Brooks comes to Westwood by way of Oklahoma and bolsters the future of UCLA's offensive line. He is currently projected to back up Akinshilo despite having starter-level talent. As a four-star out of high school, Brooks has upside as a Bruin.

"This is a big pickup, and sort of a classic UCLA pickup. The SoCal bounceback who goes out of region and finds things not to his liking is a time-honored UCLA tradition, and it is a well-trodden path for many of UCLA best players over the years. While some of the other transfers UCLA has added were formerly highly rated high school prospects who saw their stars diminish in their college careers, Brooks is still on the ascent, having, again, only redshirted like true freshman offensive linemen often do. For our money, this is probably UCLA's best pickup so far in the Portal, and given that it is at a position of need, this was a big early coup for Andy Kwon in trying to rebuild this fairly broken offensive line." --Bruin Report Online Staff

Nehemiah Johnson, Freshman

Johnson is a three-star commit from the class of 2025 and is entering his first season in Westwood. The offensive line in general is pretty crammed. The Orange (Calif.) Orange Lutheran product is likely to redshirt this season.

"Johnson is a legit 6-5 and 320 -- a big body, with a wide frame. He's carried some not-great weight for a while, and that limited him. As an underclassmen in high school, the report on him was that he showed good athleticism and flexibility for that size, but still wasn't playing with suddenness or violence.  Being a hard worker, the reports out of Orange Lutheran are that Johnson kept putting in work to get better, got stronger, shed a little weight, and then this spring and summer he started to show results in camps and combines. In May, after watching him at a camp, 247Sports' Greg Biggins said: "Johnson took reps at center and guard and offers some nice positional versatility."  Let's be straight, though, he still has a long ways to go in transforming his body to college-football ready, has to still get quite a bit stronger and far more refined in his technique and and footwork.  There could be a glimmer, though, of a Power 4 level player in there, and UCLA absolutely took him as a longer-term project." Bruin Report Online Staff