UCLA Football Edge Rusher Mitchell Agude Enters Transfer Portal
In yet another surprise reversal, the Bruins will not have their top pass rusher back for 2022.
Edge rusher Mitchell Agude had previously been a candidate to forgo his final year of collegiate eligibility in favor of the 2022 NFL Draft, but after the deadline to declare passed, that path seemed to have dissipated. Agude wound up announcing his return to college on Jan. 20, putting him in line for a third season as UCLA football's top man on the edge.
As it turns out, though, Agude will not be "doing this college this one more time" in Westwood, as many had anticiapted.
Agude reportedly entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, four weeks after announcing his intentions to stay in school another year. Agude, a former Riverside City College transfer, will have one year of eligibility remaining wherever he ends up next.
In two seasons with the Bruins, Agude has 78 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, four passes defended, four quarterback hits, seven forced fumbles and one fumble recovery in 18 games.
Agude started off the 2021 season red hot, forcing four fumbles in the first two games against Hawaii and LSU. Injuries hampered Agude midseason, though, and he did not force another turnover for the rest of the year.
The final three games of the regular season treated Agude kindly, though, as he tallied 1.0 tackle for loss in each of the Bruins' wins in a perfect November. Agude's high-point in conference play was a 10-tackle performance against USC, setting a career high in the historic blowout rivalry victory even while getting flagged later in the game for making a chasedown tackle without his helmet on.
With Agude gone, UCLA will now be without nine of its defensive starters from 2021 – Agude, safety Quentin Lake, cornerback Jay Shaw, cornerback Obi Eboh, cornerback Cameron Johnson, striker Qwuantrezz Knight, linebacker Jordan Genmark Heath, defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia and defensive lineman Datona Jackson. Eboh, Johnson, Knight, Genmark Heath and Jackson were out of eligibility and Lake and Ogbonnia were expected NFL Draft entrants, but Shaw and Agude took a more indirect route to leaving the program.
Shaw announced he would be returning to Westwood for his super senior season in early January, only to pivot a few weeks later and end up transferring to Wisconsin. Agude may not have mentioned UCLA by name in his return post last month, but the general consensus was that he would be back as well.
The impact Agude's departure is deepened by the fact that the second-string edge rusher who played behind him this past fall, Myles Jackson, already transferred to Indiana earlier in the offseason. That leaves sophomore Devin Aupiu and Washington transfer Laiatu Latu left at the position, but the former had just four tackles in 2021 and the latter is returning from a medical retirement with the Huskies.
The Bruins have now had 15 players enter the portal since the end of the regular season, with Agude being the fifth projected starter to make the move. Shaw, receiver Chase Cota, safety DJ Warnell and punter Luke Akers were all in line to be atop the two-deep at their respective positions come next fall, leaving several unexpected holes for coach Chip Kelly to fill in the coming months.
The technical rules in terms of scholarships and transfers are complicated enough in a normal year, but with super seniors still a thing and COVID-19 eligibility extensions being granted across the country, it gets even more messy. Essentially, schools are allowed to add up to 25 new scholarship players each cycle, but that number goes up for every outgoing transfer.
That figure maxes out at 32, however, and with 15 players in the transfer portal, the Bruins are far past the point where they cannot replace additional departures should any more players declare their intentions to leave the program. Between the seven incoming transfers and 11 signed recruits, UCLA has room to add as many as 14 more transfers.
Catch up on all the transfer market news related to UCLA at All Bruins' transfer portal tracker.
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