Weekly Answers, Pt. 1

Check out the first batch of weekly answers…

1) Will Mora be hiring a DC soon and if not do you believe this is affecting recruiting and are you hearing any surprise recruits that may come to Westwood?? – Ley
He said he wanted to have one in place by the end of the week, and today’s Friday, so we’ll see. I don’t think it really affects recruiting that much, unless it’s a big splashy hire. Put it this way: Kids are not NOT coming to UCLA because of no defensive coordinator.

2) What’s the status on Da’End Parker? He going to come back? Is there a chance for a medical redshirt? – The Blur
Ben Howland has been incredibly tight-lipped on this. I’ve been told the staff thinks he can play with the injury he has, and he doesn’t so much, and that’s affected his return. He can apply for a medical redshirt I believe, but at this point, it’s a pretty weird situation.

3) Jon, Do you think the football staff has the time/ability to “flip” any significant verbals on or before signing day? – Anonymous
Of course they do. This staff made so many previous inroads at previous jobs that now they’re all together, UCLA is a more attractive place.

4) When you or some other news source (as opposed to a random poster on some UCLA blog) says that a guy is a UCLA lean – is that because you’ve take to the player (off the record) or a coach or family member and they’re specifically told you he’s favoring school X or Y etc. Or can it be something far more speculative? – BruinBall
Most of the time it comes from the player directly; sometimes from a parent and sometimes from a coach, but mostly from the player directly. With the way recruiting goes these days, though, you really can only trust the player, and sometimes not even that.

5) Regarding recruiting when a new head coach (mora) takes over a program does he have to honor the current scholarships offered by the prior coach or can he withdraw offers to recruits that my not fit his needs? – 40ouncezipper
There is an unspoken code that is established that coaches honor the scholarships they want to honor, essentially, and while not outright pulling an offer to a kid, may “suggest” he look elsewhere. Or they throw out the word redshirt, or the dreaded greyshirt, and the kid gets the message.