Table Is Full for Toledo

Like a hungry man in a buffet line, UCLA piled its plate high with recruits Wednesday and was only mildly chagrined at what it couldn’t grab.

The Bruins received letters of intent from each of the 24 high school seniors who had made commitments. UCLA also signed two junior college transfers in December, making this recruiting class equal in size to the vaunted 1998 class ranked No. 1 in the nation.

“Our coaches really did an outstanding job,” Coach Bob Toledo said. “We filled all of our needs. It’s a balanced class--we are bringing in players at all positions. You never get everybody you recruit, nobody in the country does, but we earmarked kids and got most of them.”

UCLA losing four of five games after a 6-0 start did not prompt any players who made commitments to back out.

“These guys were getting hit on pretty good [by other schools],” Toledo said. “But we never had anybody waver.”

Several newcomers will have an opportunity to play next fall, including tight end Marcedes Lewis of Long Beach Poly, the Southland high school with the most prospects. Four of Lewis’ teammates chose USC.

“To be honest, I couldn’t care less [where they go],” Lewis said. “I chose what was good for me. We’ll always be friends, I’m not going to let our schools tear us apart. They did what was best for them, I did what was best of me.”

Although senior Mike Seidman and redshirt freshman Keith Carter return at tight end, Lewis (6 feet 6, 240 pounds) is athletic enough to play wide receiver at times. He also plans to play basketball for the Bruins.

“In my opinion we got the best Long Beach Poly player,” Toledo said. “We got a real plum in Marcedes Lewis. He’s the one we went after the hardest and I’m really excited to have him in the program.”

Incoming safeties Eric McNeal of Gardena Serra and Jarrad Page of San Leandro and Mike Nixon of Phoenix Sunnyslope will have an opportunity to play right away because starting safeties Marques Anderson and Jason Stephens were seniors. If one or more prove capable, sophomore Matt Ware might not move from cornerback to safety as planned.

Toledo believes Justin London of Northside High in Roanoke, Va., and junior college transfer Patrick Pierre-Louis of Glendale might shore up linebacker, another position of need because of the departure of All-American Robert Thomas and four-year starter Ryan Nece.

“Linebacker is a position we can use some people and London is a physical, mature guy who could play in the middle or over the tight end,” Toledo said.

Quarterback also can be considered a position of need, although senior Cory Paus ranks among the top five in most of UCLA’s career passing categories.

Paus’ performance mirrored that of the team--a strong start and a dismal finish--and Toledo said incoming freshmen Matt Moore of Hart and Drew Olson of Piedmont will be examined closely along with redshirt freshman John Sciarra.

*

Staff Writer Ben Bolch contributed to this report.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*

Bruin and Trojan Recruits

(tabular data not included)