UCLA Football: 2028 Edge Pays Visit To Westwood

The Bruins are hitting the recruiting trails hard!

UCLA HC DeShaun Foster / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

In this current era of College Football, recruiting has literally turned into a 24/7 365-day a year job.

College coaches are constantly checking in on recruits, visiting recruits, messaging recruits, calling recruits and contacting them with every form of social media possible.

It's never too early to start recruiting a prospect that may turn out to be an elite athlete. In the case of Marcus Fakatou, the Bruins have already made their intentions known as to how much interest they have in the young player.

And by young, we're talking very young.

Thank you UCLA for hosting us at Spring Practice this past Saturday. Awesome experience! A pleasure meeting the coaches. 🙏🏽@CoachDubb_Drick @COACHSTACE_ @JayToia_102 @TavakeJr @UCLAFootball pic.twitter.com/ZpdGLHgLTz

— Marcus Fakatou 🇹🇴 (@MarcusFakatou) April 15, 2024

Fakatou is a member of the 2028 class. In other words, he's currently in 8th grade.

Hailing from Fontana, Calif., Fakatou is reportedly going to attend Orange Luthern High School. Despite still being in middle school, On3Elite lists Fakatou as 6'7" 260.

Yes, Fakatou is the size of NFL defensive ends -- and even bigger than some NFL defensive ends -- and he can't even get his learner's permit to drive for years.

Despite not playing a single snap of high school ball yet, it's safe to say Fakatou will be drawing heavy interest from colleges all over the country -- and probably as soon as next year. It was smart for head coach DeShaun Foster and the rest of the staff to get the youngster on campus.

By building early bonds and familiarizing recruits with the campus, UCLA stands a better chance to be in the thick of Fakatou's recruitment as opposed to slow playing him with generic letters and the occasional phone call.