UCLA Football Defensive Lineman Odua Isibor Enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Isibor was set to start on the interior line for the Bruins with a new defensive coaching staff in place for 2022.

Another Bruin starter is leaving before spring camp has reached its end.

UCLA football defensive lineman Odua Isibor entered the NCAA transfer portal on Wednesday, the fifth-year senior announced on Twitter. Isibor now joins linebacker Caleb Johnson as the second defensive player to enter the portal in April, and the Bruins have now lost 19 players to the portal this offseason overall.

Isibor arrived in Westwood in 2017, redshirting his freshman year before appearing in 42 of UCLA's next 43 games. The Phoenix native has one year of eligibility remaining.

After a lot of prayer and talking with my family, I have decided to enter my name in the transfer portal. I’d like to thank UCLA for all the opportunities I have received thus far. I thank God that I am blessed enough to have been part of such an institution. Go bruins :) pic.twitter.com/YrniixdKXG

— Odua Isibor (@odi_ii) April 20, 2022

The iron man of the Bruins' front seven only missed one game across the first four years of the Chip Kelly era – a road contest at Arizona State in Week 5 of the COVID-19 shortened 2020 campaign.

In 2021, Isibor recorded 14 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble. For his career, Isibor has 56 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Isibor only started two games in 2021, but with Otito Ogbonnia and Datona Jackson both electing to turn pro, he was set to be one of the lynchpins of the group in 2022. Through the first two-thirds of spring camp, Isibor spent every team session with the 1s alongside either Martin Andrus Jr. or Jay Toia.

Tiaoalii Savea transferred to Arizona after a successful freshman campaign, while John Ward, Tyler Kiehne and AJ Campbell all entered the portal as well. Duke transfer Gary Smith III is currently injured and Harvard transfer Jacob Sykes will not enroll until the summer, meaning Andrus, Toia and Quintin Somerville are the notable active players remaining in that interior defensive line group for the rest of spring ball.

The lack of depth up front goes beyond the interior line, though, as edge rushers Mitchell Agude and Myles Jackson both transferred out of the program as well. However, the Bruins retained Bo Calvert and Carl Jones at defensive end while adding North Texas' Grayson and Gabriel Murphy and Washington's Laiatu Latu, and position changes could be in the cards due to the imbalance.

Isibor spoke to the media on April 7, talking mostly about his leadership role and the graduate degree he had been working on.

The technical rules in terms of scholarships and transfers are complicated enough in a normal year, but with super seniors still a thing and COVID-19 eligibility extensions being granted across the country, it gets even more messy. Essentially, schools are allowed to add up to 25 new scholarship players each cycle, but that number goes up for every outgoing transfer.

That figure maxes out at 32, however, and with 19 players now in the transfer portal, the Bruins are far past the point where they cannot replace additional departures should any more players declare their intentions to leave the program. Between the 11 incoming transfers and 11 signed recruits, UCLA has room to add as many as 10 more transfers.

Catch up on all the transfer market news related to UCLA at All Bruins' transfer portal tracker.

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