UCLA Football: OL Josh Carlin Offers Up Candid Review Of New Center Sam Yoon

Alex Kirschenbaum | Apr 15, 2024

Dec 16, 2023; Inglewood, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins players celebrate a victory against the Boise State. / Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

Returning UCLA Bruins starting right guard Josh Carlin chatted with reporters following a spring practice last week. He covered several topics, perhaps most fascinatingly how the team is adjusting to its new center, as Tracy Pierson of 247Sports details.

UCLA lost longtime starting center Duke Clemens after he wrapped up his eligibility in 2023. 6'5", 280-pound Pasadena native Sam Yoon, a junior, has been installed as his replacement in the team's rebuilding offensive line.

"It's good, it's always a work-in-progress," Carlin noted. "Like I said, we're just getting better every day, we're kind of building that chemistry with Sam and Dovid [Magna] coming from the D-line, so we're just continuing to build that form... [Sam's] been great. I mean Sam's a really smart kid."

"I can't give you the specific major, but it's some scientific, really smart major," Carlin joked to a sea of reporter chuckles, "so he's a really smart kid, he works hard, he's in there every day working really hard, and he's good."

Yoon was a three-star prospect coming out of Loyola High School in LA. He was the No. 41-ranked offensive tackle in his 2022 high school class and the No. 44-ranked prospect in the state.