FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: UCLA Hires DeShaun Foster

UCLA has hired former UCLA tailback DeShaun Foster to be its next head coach.

Foster was an assistant since 2017 and recently took a job as running backs coach with the Las Vegas Raiders.

REACTION: In a lot of ways, this makes sense. Foster can keep the current roster together, will be popular with the players and importantly for UCLA, will not cost a lot of money. Athletic director Martin Jarmond, if he is smart, will use a couple million to go hire a top offensive coordinator.

The downside is whether UCLA views him as a placeholder because it was desperate and needed someone for a year as it moves into the Big Ten.

Going forward, UCLA will have a coach who wants to recruit, unlike Chip Kelly. The hope from UCLA’s perspective is he won’t be a wet noodle like Karl Dorrell or a slickster like Rick Neuheisel.

The risk is Foster’s never been a head coach before but these days, it seems to be more important to hire someone who can relate to players and maybe fundraise NIL. Then you go get a couple top coordinators to handle the X’s and O’s.

Pete Thamel of ESPN reported UCLA interviewed 11 coaches. If that is true, many probably were not interested given the timing or UCLA wouldn’t pay their buyout. That certainly would be a factor is two names being tossed around: Washington coach Jedd Fisch and Arizona coach Brent Brennan.

Maybe the best thing Foster had going for him was that he had more personality than another former player/current assistant coach, Ken Norton, who rarely seized the initiative to be a coordinator or head coach.

If USC hires Carson Palmer as its head coach, then we can have a reunion of their epic 1997 CIF-Southern Section championship game when Palmer’s Santa Margarita defeated Foster and Tustin, 55-42.

35 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: UCLA Hires DeShaun Foster”

  1. This is an unusually savvy choice by the Bruins – could end up being Donahue 2.0. I have faith in Riley’s cocmpetitive instinctd but I still wish they would have hired Del Rio. There is no Trojan connection in any part of the athletic dept these days.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. DeShaun Foster? Wasn’t he the player who drove a car leased by a Hollywood actor?! Didn’t he get suspended and miss the Oregon and USC games for his decadence?! How low can UCLA go?
    #BruinsReachBottomOfTheBarrel….
    #….AndTheyLikeIt…..

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      4. BIDEN EAT SLEEP SHIT……24/7 ……RINSE AND REPEAT

        Joe is laughing his ass off as he sits between your ears. FREAK!

        Like

      5. This thread is about sports, but you just had to jump in with another lame-ass Biden statement… ONE NO CARES……seek help for your mental illness

        Like

    3. “We are looking for a coach with integrity, energy and passion; someone who is a great teacher, who develops young men, is a great recruiter and fully embraces the NIL landscape to help our student-athletes,” athletic director Martin Jarmond said in a statement.

      Some integrity knowingly violating the rules and hurting the other players on the team who followed the rules. MG, I bet he had a handicapped parking sticker too!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. Not sure that was him. It was cad McNown and some others. Funny thing about Cade, after drafted he bought a Porsche and drove it across country to training camp and was late to rookie check in. There was one camera crew left packing up in the parking lot at Lake Forest univ (where the bears have their training camp) and he pulls up and parks in a handicapped spot right near the front door. And they get it on tape. And this is all after he got busted in the handicap placard scandal month earlier. Smart asses are still stupid. Welcome to Chicago

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Foster was a second team All-American at sucla and in 2012 was sucla’s director of high school relations (You hear, Wiley?), so he is neither a “wet noodle” or “slickster’ (good one, Wolf)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. The ‘no holds called’ final Chiefs’ drive iced it….but the fumble instead of TD on the first drive, ridiculously bad protection for the kicker on the crucial extra point and the flubbed punt didn’t help….

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Seriously…check out the formation on the blocked extra point…. you had to be saying to yourself, “do the 49ers WANT this kick blocked?”……

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. True….
        …And, as long as we’re being fair [which you know by now, I’m not that hot on], the Chiefs did WAY outgain the Niners….

        Liked by 2 people

  6. this seems incredibly underwhelming. no track record of high level coaching success. i dont see really talented coaches wanting to work for him. he might be really dynamic with recruiting, but UCLA has no NIL money and no chance of doing well in the Big10. He might lure a few middle rank players to UCLA with his personality, that isnt getting him far.

    UCLA can join the bottom-dweller with this hire.

    this is really good news for USC.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  8. Cade McNown had a cup of coffee in the NFL – maybe he could have a second cup as Foster’s offensive coordinator.He’s probably hungry for a gig to put new tires on that Porsche Boxster.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment