Eli Ankou, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound defensive end, was supposed to greyshirt this season but has since been called by UCLA coach Jim Mora and is expected to join the team soon.

“We’re calling on reinforcements,” Mora said. “He’s ready to go, he’s excited to go. He just got to get the paperwork done, and since he’s an international student, that’s a little bit different. Gosh, I hope we see him next week. We’re a little bit thin on the defensive line, so yeah, he’ll be in.”

Ankou is Canadian and was expected to enroll at UCLA in time for the spring quarter. But depth on the defensive line puts Ankou, a three-star recruit, on the fast track. The Bruins suffered a hit at defensive end when Sam Tai was lost for the season with a torn ACL. Iuta Tepa transferred to Hawaii.

“We’ll see where he is,” Mora said. “It’s interesting, because it started out as he was going to greyshirt. And then we called him a week or so ago and said, ‘Hey, you know what, we need you.’ I was really interested to see if he was resistant, and he was like, ‘Great, here I come.’ So it’s good.”