UCLA Football: Also-Ran Teams for New Bruins Commit's Services Revealed

Well, some of them.

Nov 25, 2023; Pasadena, California, USA; Helmets at the line of scrimmage for a game between the UCLA Bruins and Cal Golden Bears. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Fresh UCLA Bruins commit Karson Cox, a three-star junior running back out of Oak Hills in Hesperia, California, chose to stay local despite having a variety of suitors for his services, according to Blair Angulo of Bruin Report Online.

Per Angulo, Cox also visited the Arizona State Sun Devils, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the SMU Mustangs, the Kansas Jayhawks, and UCLA's least-favorite program in the world, the USC Trojans. Angulo notes that, all told, around 20 teams courted Cox. Angulo even reports that the Cardinal and Gold were at one point the leaders in the clubhouse to land his services.

With newly-promoted head coach DeShaun Foster now at the helm (he had been the Bruins' running backs coach first, under Jim L. Mora and next under Chip Kelly), UCLA is slowly making big inroads on its team-building this year.

The team has 18 incoming transfers forthcoming from the NCAA portal, including four-star quarterback Dermaricus Davis, a Rancho Cucamonga native formerly of the Washington Huskies. Foster's doing his darnedest to add major prospects for the future, including Cox, though he linked up with the Blue and Gold a bit late to nab a lot of upper-tier 2024 contenders.

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