The tears started before the rookie coach said his first word. They flowed again only 35 seconds into his opening remarks.
“Being the head coach here at UCLA,” DeShaun Foster said Tuesday morning, while trying to hold it together, “you guys have no idea, just …”
Foster paused in a losing battle to compose himself, his gentle sobbing drowned out by the roaring applause from a few hundred UCLA donors, players and alumni inside Pauley Pavilion’s pavilion club.
From star running back on UCLA’s last team to play in a Rose Bowl game to longtime running backs coach to head coach, Foster marinated in the realization that he had made it to the top at his alma mater.
“It’s a surreal moment just coming all the way back around,” Foster said, finally steadying himself during his introductory news conference. “You know, that I’m the head man here at UCLA.”
After six seasons of stoicism and joylessness under Chip Kelly, UCLA football appeared to have rediscovered its heart.
It belonged to a 44-year-old who is as long on passion as he is short on experience, having never called a play as a coordinator, much less a head coach. Yet Foster’s conviction in his ability to lead UCLA back to glory, not to mention his loyalty to the four letters, were among the reasons athletic director Martin Jarmond selected him the successor to Kelly after a search lasting less than three days.
“I know he deeply cares about this place and that’s really important to me,” said Jarmond, who spoke to roughly 20 candidates, including sitting college head coaches and NFL assistants. “We wanted to find a leader and a teacher who cares about this university.”
Passion wasn’t enough to propel former UCLA players Rick Neuheisel and Karl Dorrell to success as Bruins coaches, and there’s no disputing the many challenges confronting Foster in what amounts to a massive gamble. for the program.
Among other things, Foster must bolster the team’s relatively tiny name, image and likeness coffers and spark a more aggressive recruiting mindset among a staff that put in minimal effort to land top high school players under Kelly. Foster said he would continue to be selective in offering high school prospects while prioritizing Southern California talent in addition to the best players nationally.
Acknowledging the need to do more with NIL, Foster said he was meeting with leaders from the Men of Westwood collective Wednesday. By midafternoon Tuesday, a video featuring Foster seeking support for the collective was released on the social media platform X.
Foster’s hiring has already sparked conversations about possible donations of seven-plus figures among NIL donors, said Josh Rebholz, UCLA’s executive senior associate athletic director who was also part of the coaching search committee. Ticket sales have also seen a significant uptick, Rebholz said.
One thing Foster apparently doesn’t need to worry about: loyalty among players and alumni.
He was given several loud ovations from the gathering that included a chunk of the current roster as well as former players Anthony Barr, Danny Farmer, Patrick Cowan, Josh Kelley and Demetric Felton Jr.
As Foster spoke about his ability to develop players and mentioned Kelley, the Chargers running back yelled, “Love you, coach!”
