Pete Thamel reveals 'unimaginably dumb thing' DeShaun Foster did at UCLA

ESPN’s Pete Thamel couldn’t believe one thing that DeShaun Foster and the UCLA football program did while he was in charge. Foster was fired Sunday following the Bruins’ 0-3 start, just three games into his second season.

Things just didn’t go right for Foster at his alma mater, taking over for Chip Kelly. Thamel even called UCLA “barely relevant,” so doing this one thing drove him nuts.

What did Foster and UCLA do? Or better yet, what didn’t they do over the last couple of years?

“So let me make one quick point on Foster. He did work on himself. He did one unimaginably dumb thing that UCLA needs to fix,” Thamel said on The College GameDay Podcast. “They basically shut down access to practice and players and even like human interest stories of the players. That might be the dumbest thing you could do in the Los Angeles market that I’ve seen a college football program do in 20 years. I mean, Pete Carroll opened the floodgates. Let people in. You are barely relevant, like you are barely fog in a mirror in LA and if you’re going to shut the media out? 

“That was just, I don’t know if that was Foster, if that was the sports information department, if that was administration … but my gosh, do you look stupid in week three after getting smoked by New Mexico that you wouldn’t let people come and write a nice story about your center. Like that needs to get fixed. That is just the epitome of, I don’t even know, just foolish.”

Foster finished his time at UCLA with a 5-10 record, going 5-7 in 2024. The Bruins started 1-5 but rallied down the stretch, signaling good things to come. However, it was not to be for Foster at his alma mater.

UCLA hit a new low Saturday, falling 35-10 to New Mexico in front of a sparse home crowd at the Rose Bowl. In fact, Foster seemed to agree with the assessment when asked.

“Yeah, it’s pretty low right now,” Foster said. “Like you said, I’ve been around this program for a long time. It’s just unfortunate what’s going on at this moment. We’re just not executing.”

As he reported Sunday, On’3 Pete Nakos also detailed the buyout language for Foster’s contract. The Bruins owe their head coach $6.24 million. Foster’s buyout would’ve dropped from 70% of his remaining salary to 60% after Dec. 1.