COSTA MESA — Hudson Habermehl sprawled out on the ground as his team surrounded him. He’d yet to know the severity of his injury – a torn meniscus and a torn ACL – but UCLA’s breakout tight end knew he was hurt, badly.
The 6-foot-6 playmaker bellowed in pain as DeShaun Foster, just a few months into his tenure as head coach, stood above him.
“I didn’t really ask [Foster],” Habermehl said, remembering lying on the Spaulding Field turf during his April 2024 non-contact injury.
“I was yelling at him. I was like, ‘I just want to play. I just want to play.’”
Paired with Moliki Matavao, Habermehl was set for an emergent role in UCLA football’s 2024 offense. Instead, the Northern California native labored on the sidelines, immobilized on crutches. His journey back to action would require two surgeries, a season lost and the help of his teammates and coaches to achieve his academic – completing his second master’s degree in May – and athletic aspirations.
His roommates, linebacker JonJon Vaughns and then-UCLA tight end Michael Churich, would help carry Habermehl’s belongings back to their shared apartment. Foster and tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel offered the redshirt senior rides to class, rehab and back – anything to make things easier for Habermehl as he adjusted to a year away from the gridiron.
“It was honestly a cool experience to kind of step back and be like, ‘Wow, these are true friends of mine, true people in my life that want to take care of me,’” Habermehl said. “Because I don’t think I would have been able to do all the things I could during that time without them.”
Saturday, just two weeks before UCLA kicks off the 2025 season against Utah at the Rose Bowl, Habermehl stood defiant and confident — fit with a sleek, bleach-blonde hairstyle, a shorter ‘new do’ as he prepares for a role as starting tight end.
Habermehl appeared so obscured from his previous slicked-back, long blonde hair that Foster couldn’t identify him when he debuted his new hairstyle in the weight room.
“Huddy? I didn’t even recognize you,” Foster remarked to Habermehl after conferring with an athletics staffer, thinking his standout passing target was a UCLA alumnus getting work in at the Wasserman Football Center.
Foster may not have immediately spotted Habermehl in the weight room, but he sure recognizes the impact he has on first-year offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri’s schemes.
“It was an unfortunate situation at that time, but I’m kind of happy now that I have him back in Year Two, you know, a top-caliber player like he is, and he has a high ceiling,” Foster said, who struggled to speak about Habermehl’s injury without tears last year. “He has a huge catching radius, a fearless blocker – so it’s not gonna be a big dropoff from Maliki going into Hudson.”
Habermehl will star as the likely leading force of a tight ends group in an offense he calls “explosive.” Jack Pedersen, Jake Brenda and freshmen Dylan Sims and Noah Fox-Flores could all see action on the field, as positional versatility has been at the forefront of fall camp, which came to a close Saturday in Costa Mesa.
The tight end has been in Westwood so long, since 2019, that he said he’s seen himself grow – along with Foster and Neuheisel as coaches and people – and rack up the academic achievements to go alongside his veteran status.
If Habermehl played his cards in a different order, he joked, we could be calling him by a higher title altogether.
“You could call me Dr. Habermehl,” he said.
Notes from the last day in Costa Mesa
Thirty minutes of a media-watching period – comfortably the longest on the final day of Costa Mesa fall camp – allowed for further insights into where things lie for UCLA football in 2025.
Wide receiver Mikey Matthew ran first in kick-return drills, followed by wide receiver Titus Mokiao-Atimalala, defensive back Kanye Clark and defensive back Cole Martin. Martin and Clark both had nifty cuts, showing potential in a special teams environment.
Vaughns – whom Foster has pointed to as a leader on the defense – launched walk-throughs Saturday with a tackle for loss. Later in the period, Vaughns generated pressure on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, forcing the redshirt sophomore into an errant throw, which defensive lineman Nico Davillier batted down.
Jalen Hargrove, the Rice defensive lineman transfer who signed with UCLA a little over a week ago, wore a fresh-white No. 95 jersey during practice. Hargrove previously worked on conditioning since joining the team, before joining the team’s defensive line group drills.
Hawai’i transfer Tai Marks, who spent two season at Colorado State before transferring and playing for Tulsa, will wear No. 73 when he joins the offensive linemen in drills. Marks was not spotted on the field Saturday.
While Foster said before practice Saturday that safety Key Lawrence would “take it slow” after his leg injury a week ago, the Ole Miss transfer suited up and participated in drills Saturday. He did not appear during walkthroughs.
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