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Taven Epps was among the players ranked in the initial Rivals top 100 for the 2027 class and picked up a UCLA offer earlier this month. While listed as a safety, he is playing linebacker currently.

I spoke to him Monday night to get his thoughts on the offer, his experience visiting for the Indiana game, his past trip to a practice during spring camp and the inspiration of DeShaun Foster being a former Tustin star.

So expect that to be on the front page first thing in the morning and I’ll link to it here after I drive to UCLA.

I won’t have the video (will share UCLA’s later), but I have the audio from the reporters who were here so I’ll have a transcript probably before UCLA uploads its video of DeShaun’s press conference.

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It wasn’t the loss to Indiana that bothered me — a lot.
It was the way we lost:
At home.
After a bye week which gave us an extra week to prepare.
In blowout fashion to an average team that also had a new coach.
I loved Deshaun Foster as a player, as a running back coach and was happy to see him take over as head football coach.
But barely two games into our foray into the Big 10 it’s painful to admit he’s not prepared for this. He had never done it before. Being a head coach is a craft and a UCLA head coach should have sone head coaching experience.
In the post game presser CDF didn’t have any answers other to say the players failed to execute.
That was an understatement.
But it was more than that.
Indiana beat us up physically in the trenches on both sides of the ball. They gave their QB all day to find his wide open receivers and gave Garbers almost no time to operate.
Our defense couldn’t get off the field; our offense couldn’t stay on it.
We’ve just finished the easy part of our schedule.
Going to be a long season.

1. Talent: Six years of poor recruiting by Chip Kelly has really hurt UCLA. He did some patchwork repair through the transfer portal but never established that connection to HS players that are so important to the success of the program. Other schools have taken the talent that UCLA used to get.

2. Foster: he is simply not big enough to run the program and his lack of experience as a coordinator and HC is clearly evident.

3. Defense: UCLA lost a lot of talent on defense. You don’t lose a generational player like Latu, and the Murphy brothers, Carl Jones without impacting your defense. Throw in losing two starters in the backfield to your crosstown rival and the loss Mausau in the middle.

4. Bienemy: His offense is NOT Chip Kelly’s Blur offense. There is going to be a transition to get the players to make his offense work. The players are having a difficult time with adjustments, timing and execution. At times it looks like a Chinese fire drill, chaotic and undisciplined

5. Big Ten: this is the largest stage in college football. UCLA is having to compete every season with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, suc, Washington, Penn State. There are no easy opponents.

6. Garbers and Harden: Garbers is NOT DTR or McNown or Aikman. He’s a good serveable QB that has a poor offensive line. He can be better if he didn’t have to run for his life on every play. Harden is a good back but he is not Josh Kelley or Charbonnet. Again, he is running behind a very poor offensive line and can’t seem to find traction’.

This is going to be a very painful season. I was predicting 4.5 wins but it may be worse than that. There WILL be fallout from this season and some coaches and key players may not be around next season as a result. With the NIL and the transfer portal UCLA may never be the program it once was

Meet the first five-stars

Initial 2027 top 100

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I want us to consistently get to the line of scrimmage with 10+ seconds on the play clock. I hate feeling like everyone is rushed to get the play off or risking a flag.

I’ll make my way over to the Bruin Walk at 1:50 p.m.

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Players are still uploading, here’s DeShaun Foster (speakers eventually turn on after a few questions):

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Who else is ready for basketball?

Our game against Indiana. Is it going to be a low scoring game? Do you think that UCLA will be able to run against their defense. Do you think that Garbers will find his game early or will the offense? I think that on paper, we’re evenly matched and the victory could hinge on whoever executes well and makes the fewest mistakes. It’s critical that UCLA doesn’t let the game run away from them because the WCO offense doesn’t play catch up very well. My greatest fear is that Indiana has a high-powered offense and could easily score on our defense. Their last game they scored a whomping 77 points without breaking a sweat.

Yours thoughts on the outcome?

Since I’ll be busy elsewhere most of today, wanted to make sure I got this up now ahead of tomorrow’s game:

I see where the PAC 12 is going to add Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State to the lone two schools — Washington State and Oregon State in an attempt to build the conference again.
It shout be the States Conference.
Hope they get a better TV deal.

One, UCLA had a poor showing against Hawaii and it's important for Coach Foster that this program is on the rise. Indiana, on the other hand, has shown it's best start of the season winning against Westen Illinois 77-3. Clearly, they have the momentum going into the Rose Bowl

Second, UCLA is facing three very difficult opponents after Indiana in LSU, Oregon and Penn State and could be faced with a 1-4 record going into the meat of the season.

Third, winning Saturday will show the recruits that UCLA's program is on the upward trend and have confidence with the coaching staff. On the other hand, a win would be huge for Indiana because they would be 3-0 coming into the Big Ten season and beating a Big Ten opponent on their home turf will send a message to the rest of the conference

UCLA needs to establish their running game early and seize control of the game. If Indiana scores early and often than it's all over. UCLA simply doesn't have the weapons to keep up with this hot Indiana team

We’ll talk to DeShaun after today’s practice. Still waiting to go inside the gates and find out who else we’ll be talking to.

DeShaun speaks with us a little before 9 a.m.

An early heads up about tomorrow:

The power at my place went out about four hours ago and it’s looking like it’s not coming back on anytime soon. Thankfully it’s just the electricity and not the water, also.

Depending on what kind of rest I can get between now and tomorrow morning in this heat, there’s a chance I may just be handling things remotely and sharing the UCLA upload of the press conference with DeShaun Foster before Monday’s practice and the additional interviews after practice.

So if you don’t see anything from me in the morning, then that means I didn’t go out there.

Back at practice today. Things get going at 9:15 a.m.

The latest from the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

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The Orange Lutheran OL talks about his commitment:

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Irvine (Calif.) Crean Lutheran edge rusher Anthony Jones, who was offered back at UCLA’s prospect camp in June, is returning for a visit July 28.

Four-star cornerback Byron Baldwin picked up an offer moments ago

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UCLA assistant Brendyn Taylor was at Rolling Hills Prep earlier today

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Coming to the Rose Bowl. One of the many “first” in UCLA inaugural season in the Big Ten. The first time since 1968 that Indiana has visited the Rose Bowl. I believe the Tommy Prothro was coaching the game

For final score. Mine is 16 UCLA and 14 Indiana

It will be an ESPN network game (exact channel still TBD) and kick off at either 12:30 p.m. or 1:15 p.m. PT

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