UPenn Transfer DE Jake Heimlicher Earns Offer From UCLA Football
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After hitting big on an Ivy League lineman last offseason, the Bruins are getting in early on another this cycle.
UCLA football sent an offer to defensive end Jake Heimlicher on Wednesday, the UPenn graduate announced on Twitter. Heimlicher entered the transfer portal Monday after five seasons in Philadelphia, capping things off with one of the top defensive seasons in the entire FCS.
Heimlicher's first few offers after announcing his intentions to transfer came from Ohio and UNC Charlotte, but the Bruins were the first Power Five program to reach that point in their recruitment of him. Fresno State also offered later Wednesday.
UCLA picked up a commitment from Harvard defensive lineman Jacob Sykes ahead of the 2022 campaign, and he has been the team's most consistent presence on the interior this season. Heimlicher is a different player coming from a different system, but it makes since why coach Chip Kelly and his staff would want to return to that well-educated well.
Heimlicher arrived at Penn in 2018 and redshirted his freshman year. After recording 14 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and 1.0 sack in 2019, all Ivy seasons were canceled in 2020. The edge rusher returned with a vengeance in 2021, racking up 51 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hurries en route to an All-Ivy League Honorable Mention spot.
The 2022 season went even better for Heimlicher, who made the All-Ivy First Team and All-Academic Team. Heimlicher was named a finalist for FCS National Defensive Player of the Year after recording an Ivy League-best 9.0 sacks to go along with 47 tackles, 13.0 tackles for loss, an interception, a forced fumble and 10 quarterback hurries.
Coming out of high school, Heimlicher had additional offers from Cal, Colorado, Wyoming, Hawaii, Air Force, Brown, Princeton, Montana State and Northern Colorado. The Regis Jesuit High School (CO) product was a two-star recruit and the No. 11 prospect in Colorado, according to 247Sports.
UCLA had its defensive line gutted by graduation and transfers following the 2021 season, but there could be some more holdovers heading into 2023. The only defensive tackles or edge rushers who are out of eligibility are Sykes, the oft-injured Martin Andrus Jr. and sixth-year outside linebacker Bo Calvert.
The Bruins will have to wait and see what Gabriel and Grayson Murphy, Laiatu Latu, Gary Smith and Carl do in the offseason, as well as any underclassmen who could flirt with the transfer portal themselves.
Heimlicher has one year of collegiate eligibility remaining.
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