UCLA fires DeShaun Foster after 0-3 start
The build up to the season was shrouded in secrecy. UCLA, in hopes of ambushing its early opponents, instead unearthed that its own dire situation was the secret all along.
Head coach DeShaun Foster was fired three games into a winless start to his second season, athletic director Martin Jarmond announced Sunday morning.
Tim Skipper, the former Fresno State interim head coach who Foster added to his staff in an advisory role this offseason, will take over as the Bruins’ interim head coach.
UCLA is entering an idle week before opening Big Ten play Sept. 27 on the road at Northwestern.
“I want to extend my sincere appreciation to DeShaun for his contributions to UCLA football over the course of many years, first as a Hall of Fame student-athlete, then as an assistant coach and finally as head coach,” Jarmond said in a statement announcing the decision. “He was named to this role at a challenging time of year, on the cusp of a move to a new conference, and he embraced it, putting his heart into moving the program forward. His legacy and love for this university are firmly established. He is a Bruin for life, and we wish him, his wife, Charity, and their family the best.”
Later in the day, Jarmond fielded questions from reporters as part of a 20-minute conference call to further explain the decision.
Jarmond and executive senior associate AD Erin Adkins will be aided in a national search for the program’s next head coach by a committee composed of accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats, according to the release. Committee members will be announced when finalized.
Foster, in the joint statement announcing his firing, called the opportunity to lead the program he once played for “the honor of a lifetime.”
“While I am deeply disappointed that we were unable to achieve the success that our players, fans, and university deserve, I am grateful for the opportunity to have led this program,” Foster said in the release.
The decision came down two days after a 35-10 nonconference loss to New Mexico that ended with a smattering of boos from what was left of the Rose Bowl crowd.
Foster, who posted a 5-10 record in his first head coaching job, was hired by Jarmond last February in a haste.
Ex-head coach Chip Kelly left after six seasons to be Ohio State’s offensive coordinator late into the coaching hiring cycle, and Jarmond self-imposed a 96-hour national search.
In stepped Foster, without previous coordinator experience, after spending seven seasons as UCLA’s running backs coach.
Foster’s emotional introductory press conference included a passionate guarantee that he was “prepared for this job.”
“I can tell you this is something I’m built for,” Foster said that day. “I promise you, I’m the man to do this. … I interviewed just like everybody else did. They came back with the best candidate.
“I’m gonna get everything going, and this team is gonna win games.”
A dream job filled with hopes of packing the Rose Bowl resembled more of a nightmare for Foster.
The Bruins opened his first season 1-5 before winning four of six contests to close the 2024 campaign.
Foster made sweeping changes to his staff, retaining only defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe and tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel. Among the moves was a switch in offensive coordinators, going from Eric Bieniemy to Tino Sunseri to fix an offense that toiled among the nation’s worst.
Splashy moves also included 57 new players headlined by Tennessee transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava — the polarizing Long Beach native who said leaving Knoxville in April was about returning closer to home over any reports about demands of more compensation and improved personnel.
Foster said Iamaleava’s sudden availability was “something that we couldn’t pass up,” and it meant starting over after Appalachian State transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar decided to move on after going through three weeks of spring camp.
Foster picked a former five-star talent over any worries that a month’s worth of fall practices would be too little time to prepare for the season. He banked on Iamaleava’s previous relationships with a handful of players, including some of his receivers, to help quickly master Sunseri’s scheme.
The Bruins have scored just 43 combined points over the first three games.
After UCLA dropped games to Utah and UNLV to start the season, Foster acknowledged that more repetitions “helps.”
“It’s just a situation that the more reps you get, the more comfortable you can be,” Foster said, “and you can anticipate where guys are going to be at certain spots, at certain times.”
After Friday’s loss, Iamaleava and defensive tackle Gary Smith III voiced their support for Foster and said it was on the players to turn the season around and start performing.
“I totally believe in coach Foster, man,” Iamaleava said. “We’re doing him a disservice not performing for him ‘cause he’s telling us everything we need to hear, he’s telling us everything we need to do, and we’re not executing as players. It all falls back on the players.”
Added Smith: “I believe in him 100% and he ain’t never lied to us or anything like that. We just got to keep our trust in him, and there’s a lot of things we have to clean up. I wouldn’t point the finger at coach Fos.”
But for all of Iamaleava’s raw talent, an offensive line that was an issue Foster inherited never improved.
A change in assistants, from Juan Castillo to Andy Kwon, and three new starters — all transfers — did not improve matters.
It was also the group that was among the most egregious when it came to continually violating the first of Foster’s three pillars.
Discipline. Respect. Enthusiasm.
Those were the words Foster consistently preached from the day he was hired. He only harped on discipline more with each passing penalty-littered performance.
Over the 15 games, the Bruins were flagged 128 times for 1,102 yards to rank last in the Big Ten.
Right tackle Reuben Unije, who moved into the starting lineup midway through the second game against UNLV, joined his teammates’ support for Foster and wrote on social media after the firing that the poor start “is on us.”
To open his second season, the nation-worst 30 penalties for 275 yards was among the leading culprits in losses to a pair of Mountain West Conference teams. A combined 27 of them were in losses to UNLV and New Mexico.
“We’re not good enough to keep having the type of penalties that we’re having,” Foster said after losing to a New Mexico program that brought in 72 new players and turned over its coaching staff.
Now, UCLA players have a 30-day window to decide if they want to enter the transfer portal beginning Monday. On his way out, Foster thanked his former players for their “dedication, resilience and character.”
“Even in our most challenging moments, you stayed united and gave everything you had for your teammates and this university,” Foster said in the release. “You embody what it means to be a Bruin, and I am proud to have coached each of you.”
Meanwhile, a 2026 recruiting class that entered the day ranked 23rd nationally in the Rivals industry rankings quickly started to dissolve as reactions poured in after the announcement. Defensive linemen Yahya Gaad and Anthony Jones and four-star offensive tackle Johnnie Jones all immediately decommitted and ignited a flurry of similar decisions.
Defensive lineman David Schwerzel and linebacker Ramzak Fruean, both from Washington, announced their respective decommitments later in the day. By the evening, in-state interior offensive lineman Cooper Javorsky did the same.
As of Sunday evening, the Bruins’ recruiting class ranking dropped to 50th, with 16 players still pledged.
In the 2027 class, wide receiver Demaje Riley also decommitted.
