UCLA Football: Evaluating New 2024 Bruins Commit Kwazi Gilmer

We break down the 6'2" wide receiver's film to better understand what UCLA is getting in the local recruit.

Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, CA) wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer committed to UCLA back on August 11th. He is a part of a UCLA recruiting class that currently sits at 14 hard commits, and looks to end up as one of the heaviest recruited of all 14.

Gilmer elected to play at UCLA after passing up offers from Stanford, Michigan State, Cal, Washington, and Oklahoma, to name a few.

So, what is UCLA getting out of Gilmer? We broke down his film to figure out what makes Gilmer such a special player.

Gilmer lists himself at 6-2 180-pounds. He’s got an excellent composition already, and could likely carry 10 pounds of additional muscle at the next level given his height.

He’s a long-strider with excellent straight-line speed. He definitely strikes me as somebody who can stress the defensive secondary vertically. He’s also shown a knack for returning kicks, something that might get him on the field at UCLA sooner rather than later. Gilmer’s body control is elite He can warp and bend his body to increase his catch radius on those 50-50 jump balls.

He’s shown flashes of excellent route running but would benefit a ton from additional coaching on his breaks at the top of his routes. Type of receiver that looks like he’s not afraid of contact. In his film, Gilmer displayed a willingness to block and was very effective when doing so.

As far as overall polish, the biggest part of Gilmer’s game that’s missing (on his highlight tape) is short-area work like bubble screens, and underneath routes. Not to say he can’t be effective in those roles, but where he shines brightest is when he’s taking the top off defenses. With the right coaches, he should be able to develop into a reliable target for any Division One program. 

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