Subscribe
Follow Us
The offseason is here for all of college football as Ohio State finished the season up last week by capturing the 2025 national championship over Notre Dame. The offseason has been here for a bit longer for the UCLA football team as their season came to a close back on November 30th when the Bruins beat Fresno State. Still, the team didn't do enough to get a bowl game, but year one of the DeShaun Foster era showed some positives. Now, the program is preparing for the 2025 season, and the transfer portal is a big part of that prep. UCLA has already added a lot of good talent, but there is still more out there.
Coming into this season, no one gave the UCLA football team any chance in the Big Ten and a lot of people thought that they were going to go winless in conference play. After the first few weeks of the season, it certainly looked like that was a possibility. However, the Bruins deserve a lot of credit for how they improved throughout the season. This UCLA team ended up picking up some tough conference wins, like going on the road and taking down Nebraska.
It wasn't a good year as UCLA only won five games, but based on preseason expectations, it wasn't too shabby. This UCLA team has a lot of work to do to get to where they want to be, but there were definitely some positives to build on throughout the season that will carry into the offseason and over to the 2025 campaign.
The UCLA football team can get better ahead of the 2025 season by attacking the transfer portal. They have already secured commitments from 20 transfers, but the Bruins have lost 21 players to the transfer portal as well. There is still some good talent out there still looking for a new home, and here are a few players that the Bruins could target:
Patrick Gurd, TE, Ohio State
One player to watch for UCLA is Ohio State transfer Patrick Gurd. Now that the national championship is over, we are getting some departures from teams like the Buckeyes and Notre Dame and still some other College Football Playoff teams that made deep runs. These players were waiting for their seasons to be over before they entered, and if they were in the portal when it first opened, they would've been receiving a lot of attention.
The tight end position is one of need for UCLA, and Patrick Gurd is a player that couldn't quite find a major role at Ohio State, but maybe he wants to stay in the Big Ten. He could have a bigger role with the Bruins and it could be a good fit.
Zach Evans, RB, North Texas
Zach Evans started his career in the Big Ten as he played for Minnesota for two seasons before transferring to North Texas. Evans had a decent season in 2023 with the Gophers as he carried the ball 52 times for 230 yards and one touchdown, but the sample size has been quite small in his other two seasons of college football. UCLA could use a RB in the transfer portal, and Evans is a player that they should consider taking a look at. He hasn't quite found the school that is the right fit yet, but if he wants to return to the Big Ten, UCLA could be a good option for him.
Pat Coogan, IOL, Notre Dame
Another player that waited a long time to transfer is Pat Coogan, who just finished up his season in the national title game with Notre Dame. Coogan has a ton of experience and will be an immediate starter at his next stop. This is certainly a bit of a reach for Notre Dame as Coogan is getting a lot of attention from top schools around the country, but it's still worth a shot to try. Landing someone with Coogan's experience would be a huge boost for this UCLA football team.
UCLA can build on the fact that they got better throughout the 2024 season, and by having a good offseason in the transfer portal, they can continue to improve in 2025 as well.
Transfer portal overview
One of the biggest parts of the college football offseason is the transfer portal, and the festivities begin before the offseason actually starts. Teams that didn’t qualify for the postseason have entered their offseason, but there are a lot of teams that still have bowl games to play. The transfer portal opened up on December 9th, so it creates some issues for players that want to transfer but still have a season going.
The transfer portal is a massive part of college football now, and there are definitely positives and negatives to it. One of the biggest issues that people have with it is the timing of the first window. It is open in early December so players can pick a new school and start the next semester there when January rolls around. However, it does create issues as we have already seen players this year on College Football Playoff teams have to miss out on the opportunity to participate in the CFP because of their transfer.
On the flip side, the transfer portal gives teams a chance to completely rebuild their squad in just one offseason. New head coaches can come in and bring in a lot of experienced players from the jump, and it can make for a quick turnaround. Any team has hope in the offseason because of the transfer portal.
The transfer portal opened up for the first time this season on December 9th and it stays open until December 28th. This window is the main window where a lot of the action takes place, but the transfer portal will open again in the spring.
From April 16th until April 25th, the transfer portal will be back open. That way, players can go through spring ball and have a better idea of what their upcoming season will look like. If they aren’t satisfied, they can leave. We even sometimes see players that transferred in the first window transfer again in the second window, sometimes back to their original school.
The transfer portal is a crucial part of the offseason, and we will be hearing a lot about it from now until the end of the spring.
