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Expert Shares Wild Truth About UCLA Football
Oct 19, 2024; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster reacts during the second half against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at SHI Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Amidst the long college football offseason, no one is safe from the wild hot takes of college football experts and personalities. UCLA is no different.

Jeff McMichaels, college football expert for The Big Ten Huddle, fired off four wild truths about teams in the conference. And what he said about the Bruins, although incredibly optimistic, might not be far from realistic:

"UCLA should be a consistent Top 20 national recruiter and a consistent Top 25 program," McMichaels said.

Many fans in the comments deemed this an outlandish take, but it's actually not the wildest one of the four he fired off. DeShaun Foster is changing the culture in Westwood, and they are on pace to finish as a top-20 recruiting class in his first full offseason as UCLA's head coach. All he has left to do is build this program into a top-25 contender, and he may not be that far.

McMichaels' other hot takes included the Bruins' crosstown rival, USC:

"The team the Big Ten needs to step up the most and improve their win rate to help challenge SEC supremacy is USC.

"Nebraska is considered a football blue blood, but under the current college football system, they will NOT get back to truly performing like a blue blood and can't win a national championship.

"The Big Ten only has five of their 18 teams who can win a national championship under the current college football system. They are Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Penn State and USC."

Time will tell if all of these hot takes hold up, but Foster surely has changed UCLA's trajectory in the Big Ten and in the future in general. After landing four-star Marion (Mass.) Tabor Academy defensive lineman Carter Gooden on Thursday, Foster and UCLA have the 20th-ranked recruiting class in the nation on 247Sports'national team recruiting rankings, with a few recruits left on the trail.

What Foster has done in just two seasons with the Bruins is remarkable and makes McMichaels' hot take about the Bruins in the Big Ten a lot less "hot" than his other ones. With time and constant improvement, there's no telling what the ceiling is for DeShaun Foster's UCLA Bruins.

This article first appeared on UCLA Bruins on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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