Redshirt senior DL to play in Big Ten, for DeShaun Foster following transfer from Rice

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Sarah Barber
Redshirt senior DL to play in Big Ten, for DeShaun Foster following transfer from Rice image

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Defensive lineman Jalen Hargrove is taking his talents from the Lone Star State to the City of Stars, On3’s Pete Nakos reported Friday.

 

Hargrove will use his final year of NCAA eligibility playing under DeShaun Foster at UCLA. The redshirt senior entered the transfer portal April 16 after four seasons at Rice, though he saw no action as a freshman or sophomore. He was one of at least 20 Rice athletes to enter the transfer portal this offseason.

 

 

At 6-foot-4 and 317 pounds, the defensive lineman played in 19 career games for the Owls, who finished 4-8 (3-5 in the AAC) last season. He recorded one tackle last season, in a 69-7 win over Texas Southern in Week 2.

Hargrove is the 32nd athlete in head coach DeShaun Foster’s 2025 transfer class, ranked No. 14 by On3 largely due to the Bruins’ acquisition of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. UCLA’s 21-athlete-deep 2025 recruiting class was ranked No. 41 by On3, though the ranking did not seem to factor in both of UCLA’s four-star commitments, edge Cole Cogshell and running back Karson Cox. 

Despite the addition of Iamaleava — ranked No. 4 among conference QBs by analyst Andy Staples — to the Bruins roster, UCLA is still expected to face a tough season. A few weeks back, Foster’s squad was projected to finish 15th of the 18 Big Ten Conference teams by Cleveland.com’s Stephen Means. 

But Foster isn’t letting analyst opinions get to him. At Big Ten Football Media Days in Las Vegas, the head coach and Bruins alum expressed his excitement about Iamaleava and the upcoming season

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“We're just excited to have a playoff quarterback, somebody that was able to lead his team to the playoffs,” Foster said. “They might not have gotten the outcome that they wanted, but he still was able to play and he showed how tough he was in that game.”