UCLA Football: Top 4 targets for 2019 National Signing Day

Outside linebacker isn’t an immediate position of need for the Bruins considering the experience they bring back in Keisean Lucier-South, Elijah Wade and Jayce Shelley and have a blue-chip player in Bo Calvert right behind them in the pecking order. It seems though that Chip Kelly wants more depth on the outside and that’s why Tuasivi Nomura is a high-priority target for the Bruins this offseason.

Nomura formerly played safety in high school and made the switch to outside linebacker late in his career at Centennial High and that’s where his recruitment picked up. He could play a safety/linebacker hybrid or on the outside. His background at safety benefits him as a cover linebacker given that he knows how to read plays. He came off of the edge in a 3-4 system in high school and despite having only 3.5 sacks, he had eight quarterback hurries in his senior season and had 78 total tackles.

The Corona, Calif., native is favored to go to USC but given that the Trojans are losing talent at an alarming rate a switch could be imminent. He also holds offers to Louisville, Colorado and Iowa State, among others.

Louisville is a long way from home for Nomura but the threat of Scott Satterfield’s recruiting could be a problem as he tries to piece together a class going into Signing Day. UCLA needs more names if they want to shoot up the boards into a top-35 class.