UCLA Just Won A Four Star Recruiting Battle Fans Craved

With a strategic recruitment push, UCLA lands another top prospect by flipping 4-star safety Myles Baker from rival Cal, bolstering their secondary for the 2027 class.

UCLA’s 2027 class just got a major boost in the back end, and it came at the expense of an in-state rival. Four-star safety Myles Baker has flipped his commitment from Cal to the Bruins, giving Bob Chesney another big recruiting win and adding to a secondary group that is suddenly loaded.

Baker had been committed to Cal since March, but UCLA stayed on him hard after Chesney took over and reoffered him. The Bruins made the safety spot a clear priority in this cycle, especially with so little coming in for the secondary in the 2026 class. That urgency shows now: UCLA’s 2027 secondary haul includes three cornerbacks and, with Baker’s switch, three safeties.

“Thank you God! It’s a great day to be alive and be a Bruin!🐻”

Baker, listed by 247Sports as the 193rd overall player in the country, the 14th-ranked safety and the 17th-ranked player in California, has been one of the most sought-after defensive backs in the class. At 6-1 and 185 pounds, he brings the kind of range and football IQ that can get a young defensive back on the field early. He’s also shown he can do damage against the run and the pass, working effectively on the boundary and in the box.

His junior year at Sierra Canyon backed up the ranking. Baker posted 34 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, five pass breakups, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and a sack.

UCLA wasn’t the only program in the mix. Baker had plenty of California options, with USC and Cal both involved heavily, and LSU also in the picture as he took official visits to Westwood, Cal and LSU. Cal landed him after offering in January, but UCLA’s push through the spring clearly changed the story.

Now the Bruins have one of the top safety groups in the 2027 class. Baker joins Jerry Outhouse Jr. and Pole Moala as four-star safeties in the class, giving UCLA three highly regarded options at a position group that needed help in a hurry.

In Other News...

UCLA May Have Finally Found The Backfield Answer It Needed

UCLA has spent the offseason trying to remake its roster through the portal, and the backfield looks like one of the spots where that work could pay off quickly. Bob Chesney has already added 45 players, but the arrival of Wayne Knight from James Madison stands out as one of the more important pickups for an offense that needed help on the ground after a difficult year running the ball.

Knight arrives with the kind of resume that makes him easy to spotlight, and UCLA will pair him with returning backs Jaivian Thomas and Anthony Woods in hopes of giving the Bruins more balance. There is still a familiar question hanging over the move, though, because the next step is less about what Knight has already done than whether his game translates cleanly to the Big Ten grind. [Read more 🡒]

Jalen Woods Feels Like A UCLA Building Block Fans Can Trust

Jalen Woods has taken the kind of path UCLA coaches love to point to when they talk about building a defense the right way. A three-star recruit out of St. John Bosco, he arrived with offers from programs like Miami, Oregon and Arizona State, then worked his way from a minimal freshman role into a steadier presence in the Bruins' linebacker rotation as the years went on.

His rise matters even more because it came during a period of real change around the program, with Chip Kelly gone, DeShaun Foster taking over and plenty of roster movement around him. Woods opted to stay put through that transition, and his growth from spot duty to a more trusted contributor, including his first career start against USC, is the sort of stability UCLA can use as it tries to settle into Foster's new era. [Read more 🡒]