Tevin McDonald, a two-year starter at safety at UCLA, has transferred to Eastern Washington University to play football for the Eagles, the school confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
McDonald is enrolled in classes and will begin practicing with the team as early as Thursday. The son of six-time NFL All-Pro safety Tim McDonald, he was recently dismissed from UCLA’s squad for violating team policy.
McDonald missed last December’s Holiday Bowl, due to a violation of team rules for missing a drug test.
“Obviously we know he made mistakes off the field,” Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin said Tuesday during practice. “There’s no hiding that, and we were very frank about that in our discussions.”
“My impression is that he understands those mistakes and the consequences of those mistakes.”
McDonald had 135 tackles in 27 career games at UCLA, plus four interceptions and 14 passes broken up. The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder from Fresno, Calif., had 79 tackles as a sophomore in 2012.
McDonald’s father, Tim McDonald, is currently the defensive backs coach for the New York Jets, and one of his players is former Eagle Isaiah Trufant (2002-05). Tim McDonald played 13 years in the NFL.
McDonald at a glance
UCLA 2012: Started all 13 games he played in and ranked third on the team in tackles with 79. He paced the squad with a season-high 10 tackles against Utah, and also had nine tackles against Colorado and Oregon State, and eight at Washington State. He had six stops in the team’s opener at Rice, and six tackles with a fumble recovery in a win over Nebraska. McDonald had an interception return for 50 yards versus Houston. He had five tackles and two pass breakups against USC, and had five tackles in the Pac-12 Conference Championship Game at Stanford. He sat out the team’s Holiday Bowl appearance after violating team policies.
UCLA 2011: Appeared in 14 games, and started the last 11 games of the season. He had 56 tackles and tied for ninth in the Pac-12 in passes defensed (0.86 per game, including interceptions and passes broken up). He earned Freshman All-America honors by Yahoo!Sports (first team), cbssports.com (first team) and collegefootballnews.com (2nd team). He tied the school record with three interceptions against Cal and had a career-high 11 tackles against Arizona State. McDonald finished with five tackles in his first start at Oregon State. He also had nine stops against Oregon, seven against Washington State and six versus Utah. He had five tackles against both Stanford and Arizona, and recorded four tackles (two for loss) and a pair of passes broken up against Illinois.
UCLA 2010: Did not see game action in his first year in the program.
HIGH SCHOOL: Graduated in 2010 from Edison High School in Fresno, Calif. He played three seasons for his father, Tim McDonald. As a senior, he was rated the No. 17 safety by ESPN.com. He was also the No. 247 national prospect and No. 20 cornerback nationally according to scout.com, and the No. 47 player in the California/Nevada/Hawaii region by SuperPrep. In addition, he was rated the No. 72 cornerback by rivals.com and was Scout.com’s No. 33 player in California. McDonald earned four stars from scout.com and three stars from rivals.com, and was a Prep-Star All-Region selection. He was the No. 60 player in the West by scout.com and was a member of the Tacoma News-Tribune Western 100. He earned third team All-State honors from GoldenStatePreps.com and was a second team all-purpose back on the All-SoCal squad. As a senior, he had 68 tackles, three sacks and seven interceptions. On offense he had 36 receptions for 524 yards and seven touchdowns.
PERSONAL: Born July 17, 1992. His full name is Tevin William McDonald. His parents are Tim and Alycia McDonald. He has one brother, Tim, Jr., (goes by T.J.) who was a senior All-America safety at USC in 2012. He also has one sister, Taryn. His father played football for USC (two-time All-American, 1985-86) and was a second-round selection of the Cardinals in the 1987 NFL draft. Tim played in the NFL for the Cardinals (1987-92) and 49’ers (1993-99). Tevin lists NFL standouts Ed Reed and Sean Taylor as his favorite NFL athletes.
