Powerful SoCal Running Back Roderick Robinson II Picks Up Offer From UCLA Football
DeShaun Foster double-dipped by taking the next step with a second top running back prospect on Thursday.
The UCLA football running backs coach sent a scholarship offer to Jayden Limar in the morning, but he wasn't done for the day just yet. Fellow class of 2023 running back Roderick Robinson II also picked up an offer from the Bruins on Thursday, the San Diego native announced on Twitter.
Robinson also has offers in his pocket from Arizona, Cal, Colorado, Colorado State, Duke, Jackson State, Nevada, New Mexico State, Oregon, Oregon State, San Diego State, San Jose State, Syracuse, USC, Tennessee, Utah, Utah State and Washington State.
Of the 19 offers Robinson has racked up, 16 have come in since the start of January. UCLA had been in touch with Robinson as early as September, though, at which point he only had four offers.
Robinson claimed his recruitment was 100% open as of Feb. 11, also marking his commitment date as Aug. 18, 2022. Robinson also he said he will be taking several unofficial visits in March and June in addition to three official visits in June.
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound ball-carrier is a three-star prospect according to the 247Sports Composite and Rivals. Rivals is the higher of the two on Robinson, putting him at No. 21 in California and No. 22 among running backs, while the 247Sports Composite has him at No. 27 in-state and No. 25 at his position.
Both outlets have Robinson ranked as the No. 1 running back in California.
Robinson burst onto the scene for Lincoln High School (CA) in 2021, going for 1,273 yards and 17 touchdowns on 185 carries across 11 games. Standing out primarily as a power back, Robinson also recorded 52 receiving yards on six catches.
To end the season, Robinson racked up 488 yards and seven touchdowns on 8.0 yards per carry in the final three games of Lincoln's season.
UCLA is far from the first team to jump on Robinson, but he could still be the next in a long line of Bruin running backs to take the Pac-12 by storm over the past few years. Johnathan Franklin and Paul Perkins were among the top rushers in the country in the Jim Mora era, then Joshua Kelley, Demetric Felton, Brittain Brown and Zach Charbonnet have stepped up to impress under coach Chip Kelly.
Foster has been in Westwood through them all, and he is handling the recruiting of Robinson. The West Coast prospect became the second 2023 running back to pick up an offer from Foster and the Bruins, following in the footsteps of Limar earlier Thursday.
The signed incoming 2022 class features one running back, local product Tomarion Harden. Charbonnet came back for another year, and Keegan Jones, Christian Grubb and Deshun Murrell will be there to back him up.
Whether Limar and Robinson will join Murrell and Harden moving forward remains to be seen, but the interest is there, at least from the UCLA side.
No 2023 recruits have committed to the Bruins as of Thursday.
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