Deshuan Foster’s 2025 Recruiting Class Will Be Critical

UCLA's second-year head coach, DeShaun Foster, is trying to have his team ready for the Big Ten this year. One of his primary targets in preparing his team is recruiting.

In terms of Big Ten recruiting, UCLA had a pretty lackluster year with their 2024 class. The Bruins ended dead last in the ranking at 18 out of 18 in the Big Ten. Without the transfer portal, they ranked 86th in the nation. If UCLA wants to compete in the Big Ten with power-five schools, they are going to have to make an appearance in the 2025 class.

Coach Foster knows this and is digging deep to enforce that his sophomore year is steps above his first year as coach.

Foster landed twice the number of 2025 4-star recruits than the Bruins did in 2024. UCLA was ranked 36th nationally in recruiting, which is an eight-spot increase from the 2024 class, where they landed at 44th.

As things stand today, the 2026 class is ranked 19th and has four four-star recruits -- twice as many as the 2025 class.

One of the two significant additions to the Bruins' roster in their 2025 class was a 4-star running back, Karson Cox. The California native committed to UCLA in May of this year after helping his high school team go 10-2.

The second 4-star is edge rusher Cole Cogshell, who is also a California native. He is ranked 26th nationally at his position. His power off the edge should be able to help UCLA's defense contain these lethal Big Ten weapons.

The next target coach Foster attacked is the transfer portal. Last year he placed 44th nationally in the transfer portal, this year he has already cut that number by more than half and now they place at 20th.

Foster's negotiation and diplomatic skills have been highlighted throughout this entire offseason. He successfully convinced 31 transfers to join his program. A lot of these players are coming from other Big Ten schools.

Transferring to a team in the same conference isn't unusual in itself. But when so many talented players from more successful teams last year are involved, it shows how well he can sell his passion for winning and the culture he is trying to build over in Los Angeles.