UCLA Football Safety Elisha Guidry Enters NCAA Transfer Portal
The Bruins' secondary has officially lost another veteran, this time less than 24 hours before their spring showcase.
UCLA football safety Elisha Guidry has announced he is entering the NCAA transfer portal, posting a farewell note on Twitter late Friday afternoon. Guidry has been in Westwood since 2018 and has two years of eligibility remaining.
Guidry had appeared in 28 games over the past four seasons, starting in 10 and recording 41 total tackles. Both his father, Javelin, and uncle, Paul, played defensive back for the Bruins in the mid-1990s, and his mother also attended UCLA.
After playing the maximum four games to preserve his redshirt in 2018, Guidry returned to become a major part of the Bruins' defensive backfield in 2019. As a redshirt freshman, Guidry appeared in all 12 contests and started in the final nine, racking up a career-high 32 tackles and even getting half a sack under his belt.
2020 didn't treat Guidry so kindly, though, as he started just one game and had five tackles across the shortened seven-game campaign. In four of his seven outings – including each of the last three – Guidry did not record a single statistic. Guidry saw the field in five games in 2021, notching two tackles in the season opener against Hawaii before totaling one for the rest of the year.
Guidry is the 20th UCLA player to enter the portal this offseason and the third since the start of spring camp. Linebacker Caleb Johnson and defensive lineman Odua Isibor were the first two, both of whom were in line to be starters, while Guidry had been lining up as a reserve.
Stephan Blaylock has been the starting strong safety throughout spring ball with William Nimmo Jr. backing him up, while Mo Osling III and Kenny Churchwell III have been splitting time as the starting free safety. Guidry had been rotating in with the 3s alongside walk-ons Kaleb Tuliau and Jelani Warren and early enrollee Clint Stephens.
Therefore, the Bruins appear to have the bodies to weather Guidry's departure in the short term. However, with Quentin Lake declaring for the NFL Draft earlier this offseason and DJ Warnell and Josh Moore entering the transfer portal at the end of last regular season, UCLA is far thinner at the safety position that it initially projected to be last fall.
Add to that the departures of cornerbacks Obi Eboh, Cameron Johnson, Jay Shaw and Shamar Martin, and there is set to be a lot of turnover defensive backs coach Brian Norwood will have to deal with.
Past 2022, Blaylock and Osling will be on their way out and the Bruins will lack veteran presence among their replacement options. Stephens and fellow incoming freshmen Kamari Ramsey, Croix Stewart and walk-on Jaxon Harley stand to hold down the safety room moving forward, and UCLA's staff continues to prioritize the position on the recruiting trail.
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 20 players now 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 11 incoming transfers and 11 signed recruits, UCLA has room to add as many as 10 more transfers.
Catch up on all the transfer market news related to UCLA at All Bruins' transfer portal tracker.
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