UCLA 2025 Football Positional Power Rankings: Edge

A good sign that the UCLA Bruins football season is approaching is media days. On the days leading up to Big Ten Media Days, let's start a new series.

In this era of college football, it's often hard for the casual fan to keep up with which players play at which position. Through the transfer portal, recruiting, and various other factors, it's often unclear who sits atop the depth chart in various positions.

With that being said, let's go ahead and rank each player at each of UCLA's positions for the upcoming season -- rounding out the defense with one of UCLA's most critical positions, edge.

1. Devin Aupiu, Redshirt Senior

Aupiu holds some importance in this edge position for UCLA, being one of the only tenured Bruins in an overhauled position via the transfer portal. In his redshirt junior season in 2024, he played 11 games and recorded 15 tackles (11 solo and four assisted), 4.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

Aupiu will be one of the few at the position competing for meaningful snaps.

2. Kechaun Bennett, Redshirt Senior

Bennett is one of the two defensive transfers from the state of Michigan on this list, and he is primed to make a decent impact in his final grad season. He played 13 games in Ann Arbor last season and picked up four tackles, a quarterback hurry and a blocked kick in 27 defensive snaps.

3. Grant Buckey, Redshirt Sophomore

Edge is a very important position for UCLA after accumulating a ton of loss at the position over the course of the last two seasons. In 2024, his redshirt sophomore season, Buckey played mostly special teams in just 10 games.

Ahead of this season, though, he's projected to play in a bigger role. Not as a primary starter, but maybe as an important backup.

4. Nico Davillier, Redshirt Senior

Davillier is the Bruins' highest-rated defensive transfer this season and is coming off a disruptive season in Arkansas. He finished his junior season with 23 tackles, two tackles for loss and one sack. As UCLA searches for anything at the position, Davillier at least brings experience and disruption.

5. Anthony Jones, Redshirt Junior

Yet another transfer addition at edge, Jones is a well-traveled prospect. With stops at Washington, Oregon, Texas, Indiana, Oregon State and Michigan State, the hope is he finds a home in Westwood. In 12 games with the Spartans last season, Jones had 25 tackles (11 solo and 14 assisted) and 2.0 sacks.

Ikaika Malloe, defensive coordinator for UCLA, facilitated an overhaul at the position and is hoping to get anything out of every transfer, including Jones.

6. Cole Cogshell, Freshman

Cogshell is one of three edge freshmen, but is a four-star talent out of Pasadena John Muir. While he certainly is the freshman most capable of impacting the position this season, all the transfer experience ahead of him might make this a redshirt season.

7. Lucien Holland, Freshman

Holland is the third freshman at the edge position, a three-star Inglewood product. He, like his freshman counterparts, is unlikely to find meaningful play time and will likely redshirt.

8. Jewelous Walls, Freshman

Walls is a three-star prospect in the class of 2025 and, like many freshmen on the defensive end, he is expected to redshirt his first season.

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