Bruin Trio Named to Senior Bowl Watch List
Offensive lineman Jake Burton, running back Demetric Felton and defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa were named to the Reese's Senior Bowl Watch List on Thursday. The Reese's Senior Bowl annually serves as the first step of the NFL draft process with its annual all-star game.
Burton leads the UCLA team with 23 career starts, including all 12 games in 2019 at right tackle. The past two seasons, he has helped to block for running back Joshua Kelley who became the eighth back in Bruin history to record back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. In 2019, the Bruins put together a streak of five straight 200-yard rushing games (at Arizona, Oregon State, at Stanford, Arizona State, Colorado) for the first time since 1978. The Bruins tallied a dozen rushing touchdowns in those five contests alone. Burton was a 2019 honorable mention all-conference selection by PFF.
Felton, who has also been named to the Doak Walker Award and Hornung Award Watch Lists, set a UCLA record for running backs last season with 55 receptions, a total which ranked tied for second in the nation among players at the position. He also established a new school single-season mark with four touchdowns of at least 75 yards in length, including a kickoff return for a score --- 75-yard reception at Cincinnati, 94-yard reception at Washington State, 100-yard kickoff return at Washington State and 75-yard run versus Oregon State. The redshirt senior recorded multiple receptions in all 12 games during the season, with a high of nine catches against the Beavers, which matched the school single-game mark by a running back. On the season, he rushed for 311 yards on 86 carries. Felton recorded 15 overall touches on the year which resulted in a gain of at least 20 yards. He ran for a season-best 111 yards against Oregon State to become the first Bruin to register a 100-yard receiving and a 100-yard rushing game in the same season since 2005 (Chris Markey).
Odighizuwa has started the last 20 games for the Bruins and his 10.0 tackles for loss in 2019 were the most TFLs by a UCLA down lineman since Kenny Clark registered 11.0 in the 2015 campaign. He was fifth on the team and led the Bruin defensive front with 46 overall tackles last season, including a season-high 9 stops against San Diego State. Odighizuwa rated third on the squad in quarterback sacks with 3.5 in 2019. He was a second-team 2019 all-conference selection by PFF. His 20 career starts and 36 games played are the most of any Bruin defender.
The Reese's Senior Bowl has had 93 total players chosen and 40 selected in the first three rounds each of the past two years, including 10 first-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft. One thing that differentiates the Reese's Senior Bowl from other all-star games is the participation of two full NFL coaching staffs. Last year, the two teams were coached by the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals. For further information on the event, go to www.seniorbowl.com