Mora's Reinforcements: Pt. 2

Martin is the third recruiting ace brought on by Mora in just the first few days. Martin, like Broussard and Klemm, has excellent ties to Southern California. He graduated from Muir High School in Pasadena, CA and started his coaching career at Monrovia High School. He then worked as the secondary coach at Pasadena City College and Mt. Sac before joining USC as a graduate assistant in 2006. Martin has spent the past three years at Washington where he has specialized in recruiting Southern California. Martin is now considered one of the top recruiters in the Pac-12 and will be a very formidable addition to the staff.

In the current recruiting cycle, Martin was involved with the recruitments of several prospects that UCLA covets. Wide receiver Kenny Lawler has very close ties to Martin as he was in charge of recruiting Lawler to Washington. In fact, Martin held an in-home visit with Lawler just over a week ago. Lawler currently has California leading his list but with the additions of Broussard and Martin, and Cal already having four committed receivers, the pendulum could tilt toward UCLA.

One major recruit that Martin was also the lead recruiter for while at Washington was CB Kevon Seymour from Martin's alma mater, Muir High School. Seymour, who was on UCLA's campus on Saturday, is considered one of the top two or three corners on the west coast this season. Seymour was considered a lock to USC for quite some time but overtures from Martin and the Huskies had him looking very hard at Washington. Seymour had already been considering UCLA and his twin brother Keon is a highly touted baseball recruit who is being recruited by UCLA. Seymour is a top-tier player, and with UCLA being fairly thin at corner, his services would be more than welcome.

Martin was also the lead recruiter for several other top secondary prospects like four-star cornerback Brandon Beaver from Dominguez High, three-star cornerback Bryan Harper from Colony High in Ontario and five-star safety Shaquille Thompson from Grant High School in Sacramento. Beaver was a one-time UCLA silent commit as well as a Washington commit thanks in large part to Martin. Harper was a Washington commit but he holds a UCLA offer and could reopen his recruitment with Martin in Los Angeles.

One note for the 2013 recruiting cycle is that Dashon Hunt, a current UCLA commit who recently led Westlake High School to a CIF-SS Championship by scoring five touchdowns, was being recruited to Washington by Martin. Hunt was offered by UCLA as a cornerback and he currently holds one other offer from Washington where, of course, Martin was the lead recruiter. Hunt will be one of the top players in California next year and could be one of the top defensive backs in the nation, so the addition of Martin could pay major dividends in holding onto Hunt.

For this recruiting cycle, Tuiasosopo will most likely work in a role assisting other coaches with contact.

While these hires will serve Mora well in the recruiting game, he has shown that he will be a force on the recruiting trail as well. On his first night he made calls to several UCLA commits and top prospects and most notably locked up an in-home visit with the No. 1 overall prospect defensive end Arik Armstead. In fact, Mora traveled to the Sacramento area on Friday to visit with several prospects including Armstead, four-star cornerback Marcus Rios - who committed to UCLA on Sunday - three-star OT Steven Moore, three-star DE Nate Iese and Thompson. He then returned to Los Angeles where hosted a litany of visitors on Saturday including verbal commits in linebacker Aaron Porter, defensive back Jericho Richardson and cornerback Shannon Edwards and uncommitted prospects like five-star defensive tackle Ellie McCarthy, 2013 offensive tackle John Lopez, offensive tackle Colby Cyburt and others.