EXCLUSIVE: Marcus Almada Details His UCLA Bruins Decision

Marcus Almada recently announced his Bruins commitment. Following his commitment, the talented prospect caught up with UCLA Bruins On SI.

"The three things throughout the entire recruiting process was, 1: the level of academics that I would receive and the degree that I would hold after everything was done. The second thing was, the coaching staff that I could form relationships with, all while feeling comfortable with them day in and day out. Third is the atmosphere and how comfortable I believe I would feel on that campus."

Almada revisited the moment he knew he wanted to be a Bruins DL.

"I would say that after my official visit with UCLA, I had very strong feelings about them, but I wanted to make sure that everything that I felt was really set in stone and it wasn't just feelings after my official visit, so I followed through with the rest of my official visits, but I felt like after that official visit there, I felt in my heart that it was going to be hard to beat them."

The talented recruit detailed his thoughts about the class they have brought in on the line.

"The thing with that is there is three edges and two tackles, so I am really joining one other tackle, but I know with our defensive line and what the staff has been syaing is that we are losing a lot of guys after this year, so it's a pretty big opportunity for each of the players coming in to be able to play. I think just learning the coaches, and listening to what they had to say made it a lot easier."

Almada talked about what the coaches reactions were to his commitment.

"Yeah, Coach Franklin is a very energetic guys, I got a lot of emotion out of him, a lot of them were very energetic and excited about the commitment. It was almost a relief to them and it was great to see all of those coaches that hav e been recruiting you show that type of emotion. They were all happy."

Will the prospect be peer recruiting, or will he be enjoying his senior season?

"A little bit of both. Being able to join my senior season, but peer recruiting as well with trying to get the best of the best. I haven't thought to much on it, but we will see what the possibilities are."