UCLA Football Safety Jelani Warren Enters NCAA Transfer Portal

With the transfer portal set to reopen, the Bruins have lost an experienced walk-on safety from their roster.

A key member of the Bruins' scout team is bidding farewell to Westwood.

UCLA football defensive back Jelani Warren became the latest Bruin to enter the transfer portal, the redshirt senior walk-on announced Wednesday night on Twitter. Warren never took a snap in a game for the Bruins, but he contributed to game planning through on the practice field.

Warren will leave UCLA with a degree, but he will still have two seasons of eligibility remaining due to redshirt and COVID years.

The Oakland native held additional offers from FCS programs Cal Poly, Columbia and Northern Arizona coming out of high school in 2019, and he also picked up interest from Cal, Fresno State, Oregon State and Wyoming on Twitter at the time. 

Warren decided between PWO offers from Washington State and UCLA, but ultimately opted for the latter. Last season, the 6-foot-1 safety competed was running with the fourth-stringers during practice – a spot that signaled a low likelihood of reaching the field in games, even with the departures of seniors Stephan Blaylock and Mo Osling III.

So far, the only UCLA walk-on who has entered the transfer portal and found a new home is quarterback Chase Artopoeus, who wound up at Chattanooga. Linebackers Erich Osteen and Kobey Fitzgerald, on the other hand, remain in the portal.

A total of 10 players left the Bruins via the transfer portal between Dec. 5 and Jan. 18. The dead period is about to end, with the portal set to reopen on April 15.

That is a shift from the initial calendar, as the portal was previously scheduled to be open from May 1 to 15. That changed in October, though, and now the portal will be open during UCLA's spring camp – something coach Chip Kelly appeared unaware of during his latest press conference on Thursday.

As a result, Warren announced his intentions to transfer just one practice into spring camp. Last year, linebacker Caleb Johnson, defensive lineman Odua Isibor and safety Elisha Guidry all entered the portal during spring camp.

Click here to check out All Bruins' 2023 transfer portal tracker

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PHOTO COURTESY OF JELANI WARREN/TWITTER