Edge rusher Collins Acheampong commits to UCLA
Former Santa Margarita High football player Collins Acheampong announced his commitment to UCLA with a post on Instagram on Thursday.
The edge rusher was ranked as a four-star prospect by 247sports as a member of the 2023 class coming out of high school before signing with the University of Miami.
UCLA’s director of player personnel Ethan Young indicated with his usual “BOOM!” post on X that a commitment was coming on Dec. 30 but nothing came of the news until four days later with Acheampong’s announcement. He is expected to be UCLA’s final commitment from the early transfer portal window, which closed on Jan. 2.
Acheampong’s announcement came on the same day that UCLA promoted outside linebacker and defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe as its next defensive coordinator.
The 6-foot-7, 270-pound true sophomore was initially committed to Coach Jim Harbaugh and Michigan in 2022 before flipping his pledge to the Hurricanes.
He spent just one season in Miami and is now headed to Westwood. Acheampong had some level of familiarity with Coach Chip Kelly and UCLA, having taken an official visit in May 2022.
Acheampong is originally from Ghana and moved to California as a freshman to play American football for the first time at Fairmont Prep. He finished with 51 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, nine sacks and a fumble recovery in nine games as a freshman.
“I started playing football my freshman year when I came to America,” Acheampong told the Southern California News Group in March 2022. “… I came to America (to play) basketball but the school already had two bigs ahead of me. …That’s when I started playing football. I hadn’t even watched a football game when I jumped in my first official football game.”
Fairmont Prep’s football program disbanded in 2020 and Acheampong continued his career at Santa Margarita. He had 14 tackles, three sacks and four pass deflections in four games in 2022. Acheampong was named an Under Armour All-American in Nov. 2022 and was invited to play in the showcase game.