(Photo Courtesy of My'Keil Gardner/Twitter)
Defensive Lineman My'Keil Gardner Secures Offer From UCLA Football
Chad Kauha'aha'a is continuing to try and build his position group for the future.
The UCLA football defensive line coach has already made three offers to class of 2023 prospects at his position group since getting hired in December, and he made two on Wednesday alone. The first went to Grant Buckey, while the second went to a late-rising recruit, My'Keil Gardner.
Heading into his junior year, Gardner's only offers were from Arizona and Arizona, only for him to pick up offers from Fresno State, Texas, Arizona State, Cal and Colorado midseason. Wisconsin offered Gardner just after his season ended, then Oregon State, Iowa, Iowa State, Nevada, Utah State, USC and Nebraska have offered just since the start of the open contact period in January.
Gardner drew all of that high-level attention by taking a major leap at Liberty (AZ) this past fall. In 12 games, Gardner racked up 86 tackles, 24.0 tackles for loss, 10.0 sacks and five passes defended.
Behind those gaudy stats and leading his team to an appearance in the AIA State Championship Game, Gardner earned a three-star rating from 247Sports. He has yet to pick up an evaluation from Rivals or ESPN, as is the nature for a late-riser like Gardner.
UCLA, with a focus on sending offers to defensive linemen, seems to be making an effort to bolster a group that desperately needs bodies in the near future.
The interior group already lost Otito Ogbonnia to the 2022 NFL Draft, Datona Jackson to graduation and John Ward and Tyler Kiehne to the transfer portal this offseason, and without any incoming freshmen to replace them, the position is in line to be much thinner next season. Harvard transfer Jacob Sykes is coming to Westwood, but with one year of eligibility remaining, he will join Odua Isibor, Martin Andrus Jr. and Tyler Manoa as interior players who will be forced to move on from the college game after next season.
Come 2023, Quintin Somerville – who didn't play at all due to injury in 2021 – and Jay Toia project as the only real contributors at defensive tackle, and they will be a redshirt sophomore and a junior by then, respectively.
Gardner and Buckey are two of the possible additions to that future defensive line room, as are Jayden Wayne and A.J. Fuimaono. Before Kauha'aha'a arrived, Fuimaono was the only one who had picked up an offer from UCLA, while the other three have all been pursued by the new position coach.
Wayne is the top-ranked player out of that group, a consensus top-10 player at the position in the country, while the other three are more under-the-radar prospects.
Gardner is on the cusp of graduating from the under-the-radar category to more of an elite status after putting on the show he did in 2021 and drawing the kind of attention he has this offseason, meaning there will be plenty of competition in his recruitment moving forward.
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