UCLA football coach DeShaun Foster on Tuesday announced three hires to help fill out his initial recruiting and personnel staff for the 2024 season.
The hires will help bolster the noticeable recruiting efforts made by Foster’s staff in recent weeks that saw several scholarship offers being sent out and announced publicly by the recipients on social media.
Butler Benton will serve as the Bruins’ general manager of recruiting and personnel and Chris Carter will work with Benton as the assistant general manager.
Stacey Ford was hired from Washington State to become UCLA’s director of player personnel.
“The UCLA brand is a constant, but college football recruiting has evolved and will continue to do so every day,” Foster said. “Butler, Chris and Stacey bring years of experience from around the country that will help us build and enhance relationships while staying a step ahead of that next change. The process of finding the right young men to wear those four letters never ends and we are fortunate to have this staff in place.”
Benton has spent the past eight years in the personnel and recruiting departments for notable FBS schools such as Notre Dame, Michigan State and Arkansas.
In 2023, roster management and evaluation were among his duties at Notre Dame. He was also responsible for the management of the Fighting Irish’s scouting and recruiting departments.
He spent the 2021-22 seasons as Arkansas’ general manager and helped put together back-to-back top-30 recruiting classes, including the No. 22 class ahead of the 2023 season.
Carter will join Benton in strengthening UCLA’s recruiting management and efforts. Carter, the brother of former UCLA linebacker David Carter, is no stranger to the local area, having played at Kaiser High in Fontana before spending all four years of his college career at Fresno State.
After seven years of playing experience at the NFL level, Carter transitioned to an off-field role. He most recently worked at USC under head coach Lincoln Riley as the director of player development. Carter also worked under Riley in Oklahoma as a defensive recruiting analyst.
Ford arrives in Westwood after spending the past two seasons at Washington State. He also spent three seasons as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Warren High in Downey (2019-21) and served as a linebackers coach at his alma mater, Cathedral High in Los Angeles.
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The hires help fill the voids left behind by Darren Uscher and Ethan Young.
Uscher was a player personnel and scouting consultant at Oregon in 2023 before arriving in Westwood. He also spent time working at Auburn, Boise State and Georgetown throughout his career. Uscher did not stay long at UCLA, returning to the Ducks in February shortly after head coach Chip Kelly left UCLA for Ohio State.
Young joined the program in 2018 as director of strategic intelligence and was promoted to director of player personnel and in charge of the recruiting department in 2019.