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UCLA Football Offers 2023 Offensive Linemen Luke Baklenko, Heath Ozaeta

The pair of offensive tackles joined the Bruins for a big weekend of visits and left Westwood with scholarship offers.

Benjamin Royer

(Photo Courtesy of Heath Ozaeta/Twitter)

With national signing day approaching, the Bruins continue to focus their recruiting efforts on next year’s cycle.

UCLA football is trying to bolster its now-empty class of 2023, this time by reaching out to local recruit Luke Baklenko and Washington prospect Heath Ozaeta. The two offensive linemen announced their offers from the Bruins’ staff on Twitter on Monday night following their visits to Westwood over the weekend.

Both recruits thanked new offensive line coach Tim Drevno and coach Chip Kelly for their offers. Ozaeta also shouted out tight ends coach Jeff Faris, who joined the staff from Duke in January.

UCLA is just the second Division I offer Baklenko has received. The Oaks Christian High School (CA) product received another offer from San Diego State and has also received interest from Cal, Oregon State and Stanford.

Ozaeta has a handful of offers, most of which are from West Coast programs. The Bruins join Arizona, Cal, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon State, Princeton, Stanford and Utah by offering the Mount Si High School (WA) offensive tackle.

On 247Sports, both Baklenko and Ozaeta are three-stars according to the 247Sports Composite. Baklenko ranks as the No. 41 offensive tackle in the nation and the No. 75 best player in California. Up in Washington, Ozaeta is the No. 53 overall offensive tackle in the country and ranks as his state’s No. 16 overall player in 2023.

Prep RedZone wrote a scouting report for Baklenko just as the year ended in December:

“Baklenko is one of the taller linemen on this list at 6-foot-6. He moves well for his size and makes good blocks down the field in the running game and on screens. Oaks Christian even uses him as a puller in their power running game and he is effective at that too. His pass protection is good because he uses his strength well and I am curious to see how he would do against the top speedy edge rushers in the state. Baklenko is a mean player, within the rules, who does not wait for the game to come to him.”

Ozaeta recently took visits to Utah, Nebraska, Oregon State and USC. At Mount Si, the 6-foot-6 tackle splits time on both offense and defense, earning 1st-team league honors at offensive tackle and 2nd-team league honors at defensive tackle.

The Bruins lost both of its starting tackles to the NFL Draft pool earlier this offseason, with Alec Anderson and Sean Rhyan both declaring and leaving extra eligibility on the table. Rising sophomore Garrett DiGiorgio is the only player on the roster with starting experience at tackle, and Sam Yoon is the only 2022 signee who plays the position.

Looking a year down the line to 2023, UCLA has offered five offensive tackles, three of which just since Drevno took over for Justin Frye.

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Benjamin Royer
BENJAMIN ROYER

Benjamin Royer is a contributing writer at All Bruins, in association with the FanNation and Sports Illustrated networks. Royer is a third-year student at UCLA, where he is a Sports contributor for the school's award-winning student-run newspaper, The Daily Bruin. Royer was previously the Sports Editor at The Valley Star, Los Angeles Valley College's independent newspaper, and he helped develop the Twinger Talk YouTube channel and The Double Play podcast. He is also a professional actor, previously appearing in programs on Showtime, ABC, Disney Channel, FOX and CBS.

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