Tag: Rico Flores Jr.

Rico Flores Jr. trending up after UCLA win over Hawaii

Stock up for Rico Flores Jr.

One of the biggest additions in the transfer portal was Notre Dame wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. 

Flores is expected to be a favorite target for quarterback Ethan Garbers, and it looked exactly the case in the close Week 1 win over Hawaii.

College Sports Wire did a stock up and stock down from UCLA’s win over the Rainbow Warriors, and Rodney Knuppel mentioned Rico Flores Jr. as one player whose stock is up.

The best player on the field in this game was receiver Rico Flores Jr. He looks like he is going to be a big talent grab for UCLA from Notre Dame. The wideout caught three passes for 102 yards and the lone score for the offense. He is going to fit in well with the passing offense with Moliki Matavao and J. Michael Sturdivant also in the mix making the Bruins a tough team to game plan for.

Flores caught three passes for a team-high 102 yards and a touchdown, the first score of the year for UCLA, in Week 1.

As the season progresses, he should be a popular target for the Bruins offense.

UCLA’s first touchdown of 2024 goes to Rico Flores Jr.

Rico Flores Jr scored the first touchdown of the 2024 season for the UCLA Bruins.

It took nearly 37 minutes of gameplay, but the UCLA Bruins finally got on the scoreboard in the game against Hawaii. With 8:41 left in the third period, the Bruins made the game 10-7. Rico Flores Jr. caught a 39-yard pass on play-action from Ethan Garbers.

It was not a pretty first half for the Bruins, but the scoring drive was a 96-yard drive. The score put the Bruins right back in the game with a bunch of time left in the game.

Flores Jr. played at Notre Dame last season. During the year the North Highlands, California native – Flores Jr caught 27 passes for 392 yards and a touchdown.

This was his first catch of the game. It was the 10th completion out of 23 passes for quarterback Ethan Garbers. The Bruins run game has also been ineffective to this point. Top running back TJ Harden has five carries and just 12 yards on the season.

DeShaun accidentally calls Rico Flores Jr. Rico Hines

DeShaun Foster mistakenly calls Rico Flores Jr. someone else.

It is even a big adjustment for UCLA Bruins coach DeShaun Foster. The first-year head coach is still getting familiar even with his own team.

On Wednesday, Foster caused some laughter at practice as he addressed former Notre Dame WR Rico Flores Jr. by the name of Rico Hines, the former UCLA basketball player, as Ben Bolch pointed out.

It’s an honest mistake from Foster, especially after everything he has had to learn this offseason as he begins a new venture as a head coach and moves to the Big Ten Conference.

It’s quite the mistake, especially since Hines played at UCLA from 1997 until 2002. For what it’s worth, Flores wasn’t even born until 2004, two years after Hines’ career at UCLA came to an end.

Hopefully, Foster and the rest of the team can shake this one off and chalk it up to a long summer.

Rico Flores Jr. said UCLA transfer was ‘the right decision’

Rico Flores Jr. admitted he chose wisely.

In December, Chip Kely and the UCLA Bruins football program got s massive transfer portal addition from Notre Dame WR Rico Flores Jr.  But, after Kelly left for Ohio State, it looked as if Flores would enter again and go elsewhere.

That didn’t turn out to be the case, which is good news for the Bruins. And, Flores admits it was the right decision, per James H. Williams of The Los Angeles Daily News.

“I just had to wait and see,” Flores said. “I was praying on it when that happened too … a little nervous, but in life, you are going to be nervous and you have to prepare for the worst…As of right now, it seems like it’s paid off and I made the right decision,” Flores said. “I left it all up in God’s hands and prayed on it very hard and shoot I’m here at UCLA and proud to be a Bruin.”

Flores is expected to be a big piece of the revamped UCLA offense with Eric Bieniemy running the offense.

UCLA wide receiver comments on being left off NCAA Football 25

Nico Flores Jr. speaks after being left off.

EA Sports NCAA College Football 25 was one of the most anticipated game releases in recent memory. One current Bruin wants to create history after being left off.

Notre Dame transfer wide receiver Rico Flores Jr., was left off of the Bruins roster in the game. NCAA College Football 25, which boasts both a massive database of players and a “real-world” feel, did not include Flores Jr. likely due to his transfer portal status when the game was developed.

Speaking to UCLA beat writer for The Los Angeles Times, Ben Bloch, Flores Jr. said,  “Yeah, I gotta make ’em not forget ever again,” upping the ante and using the supposed snub as motivation.

Flores Jr. enters a Bruins receiving room that could use a breakout star. While UCLA has several high-profile receivers in their recruiting arriving in 2025, the new-look Bruins offense hopes to see flashes from some of their established players.

With a strong season on offense for Flores Jr., the Bruins, and Flores Jr, could benefit from the EA Sports snafu in the stat line this season.

ESPN: Receiver is Notre Dame’s biggest question mark

Hope the Irish can make strides in that this season.

No matter how good a college football team is, there always is a weakness the opposition looks to exploit. Notre Dame is no exception.

ESPN has determined what it believes to be the biggest question mark for each team in its post-spring Top 25. Notre Dame was fifth on that list, and David Hale is the writer who listed receiver as the most pressing issue for the Irish. He elaborated this way:

“There’s room for optimism with this receivers corps, which includes the addition of transfers [autotag]Beaux Collins[/autotag] (Clemson) and [autotag]Kris Mitchell[/autotag] (FIU), along with holdovers [autotag]Jordan Faison[/autotag], [autotag]Jaden Greathouse[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Thomas[/autotag]. But last year’s leading wideouts, Chris Tyree and Rico Flores Jr., both transferred, and it was a unit that struggled often even with them. No wide receiver caught more than 27 passes in 2022 or 2023. Notre Dame hasn’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since [autotag]Chase Claypool[/autotag] in 2019.

With [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag]’s legs, a big O-line and a talented backfield (not to mention a burgeoning star in tight end [autotag]Mitchell Evans[/autotag]), there’s not a ton of pressure on the receivers to put up earth-shattering numbers, but genuine progress will be critical to an Irish offense that lost three games last season – all scoring 23 points or less. In those three games, the wide receivers combined for just two touchdown grabs and none had more than four catches in any one game.”

It’s a fair assessment, and the Irish have taken steps to address receive with five freshman receivers new to the program in 2024, including [autotag]Cam Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Micah Gilbert[/autotag]. Results might not happen right away, but at least the Irish were aware of this Achilles’ heel with their offense. It will be a fun group to watch develop.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Notre Dame wide receiver headed to Pac-12 … er, Big Ten

All the best with the move

Wide receiver [autotag]Rico Flores Jr.[/autotag] became Notre Dame’s first wide receiver in nearly two full seasons to produce 100 receiving yards in a game in November when he did so against Wake Forest. Not two weeks after doing so he announced he was entering the transfer portal.

Now Flores has announced his new home: He is headed to the Pac 12.

Correction: He is headed to the Big Ten.

Flores announced Friday that he’ll continue his football career at UCLA.

Flores emerged as his freshman season at Notre Dame went on. He had 27 receptions for 392 yards and a touchdown this season. His biggest game came against Wake Forest; he had those 102 yards.

Flores shows great promise as a wide receiver at this level and was the one I was most upset to see leave the program. Considering what Notre Dame has added in the portal in recent days, it seems the Fighting Irish will be better at receiver in 2024 than 2023 despite the exits, including Flores’.

Who is missing from Notre Dame in Sun Bowl via opt-out?

These names could be in the Sun Bowl, but they won’t be.

It’s become increasingly common for college football players to opt out of inconsequential bowl games for one reason or another. With the College Football Playoff field tripling in size next year, that could solve the problem a bit, at least as far as the number of team this practice impacts. This is the future of college football, even if you don’t agree with it.

With Notre Dame facing Oregon State in the Sun Bowl, several Irish players are missing, either having entered the transfer portal or choosing to focus on preparing for the NFL draft. That means many of the Irish’s leaders in each major statistical category will be absent, so it’s not worth listing a bunch of names that won’t play.

Instead, we’re going to list the percentage of each major statistic that will be missing from the Irish during the final game of the season because of opt-outs. Hopefully, this won’t discourage you from watching the game too much:

Four-star receiver includes Ohio State in top three schools

Ohio State might have to outlast another program to lure Flores, but don’t put anything past Brian Hartline and the staff. #GoBucks

The Ohio State football program continues to mine for talent at the wide receiver position despite having a ton of talent on hand and on the way. After all, when you’re coming off of two wide-receivers being selected in the first round of the NFL draft all while having some of the best college quarterbacks coming to the program, what pass-catcher wouldn’t want to play for Ryan Day and the Buckeyes.

One of OSU’s priority targets at the receiver position in the upcoming class of 2023 is Rico Flores Jr. out of Folsom, California, and he also is impressed with Ohio State, including the Bucks in his top three just announced on his Twitter account Thursday.

At 6-foot, 1-inch, and 190-pounds, Flores is ranked as the No. 26 wide receiver and 193rd overall prospect in the class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Also included in Flores Jr’s top three are Notre Dame and Georgia.

There are still a month and a half before we know a final decision. But if Ohio State is going to land his services, it may have to find a way to get out in front of the Fighting Irish which appears to be the slight favorite to land his services at this point.

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Ohio State makes top-5 for four-star receiver from California

Ohio State in the running for another big-time receiver in the 2023 class. #GoBucks

The Ohio State football team got some good news when it found out four-star receiver, Rico Flores Jr., trimmed his list to five with the Buckeyes making the cut. Joining Ohio State in the top tier are Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, and UCLA.

Flores hails from talent-rich California and is the No. 22 ranked receiver in the 2023 class according to 247Sports composite rankings. Flores is a product of Folsom High School and also happens to be teammates with tight end Walker Lyons who also put Ohio State on his trimmed list earlier this month.

Flores has said he’d like to make a decision sometime in the summer before his senior year begins.

Of course, the Buckeyes are still in play for the No. 1 receiver in the country Brandon Inniss who will visit Columbus in April, as well as the No. 3 receiver, Carnell Tate.

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