In a move that was predictable after the early struggles of the 2025 UCLA Bruins football team, the school announced the dismissal of head coach DeShaun Foster last Sunday after their stunning 35-10 loss to the New Mexico Lobos last Friday Night, September 12, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The Bruins were 0-3 to start the season and had not led at any point this season. They were outscored in all three games by an overall total of 108-43. In the game against New Mexico, the Bruins were favored by 15.5 points and lost by 25 points. Coming off a 5-7 record in 2024 in their first season in the Big Ten, the coaching seat had become too hot for Foster.
The Bruins appear headed for their worst season in their 107-year history of football. UCLA has never lost more than nine games in a season, and they have done that just twice. In 2018, UCLA went 3-9 and in 1940 UCLA finished 1-9. This season has the feel of an 0-12 season and Foster seemed to be at a loss as to how to improve his football team.
In Friday night’s press conference after the loss to the Lobos, Foster said something that was quite revealing regarding penalties. The Bruins have 27 penalties in the past two games for a total of 245 yards. “Too many penalties,” Foster said. “We’ve got to find a way to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re not good enough to keep having the type of penalties that we’re having. We’ve got to almost be perfect out there.”
UCLA has better recruited talent than both, UNLV and New Mexico. UCLA might have to play a perfect game to beat No. 1 ranked Ohio State, when they meet on November 15, in Columbus, or they might have to play a perfect game to beat No. 2 ranked Penn State, whom they will take on at the Rose Bowl on October 4th. But if they have to play a perfect game to beat UNLV or New Mexico, then they have the wrong coaching staff in place.
UCLA paid New Mexico $1.25 million in a guaranteed payment to play at the Rose Bowl. These games are supposed to be setup for the purpose of getting an almost certain victory in exchange for the payment to the smaller school. They can occasionally result in an upset, but rarely does the team writing the check get blown out on their homefield.
The Lobos looked like the better team. They rushed for 298 yards on 46 carries for a 6.5 yard per carry average. They physically pushed the Bruins around and controlled the football for 36:38 of the 60:00-minute clock. The UCLA offense could not get untracked and looked out of sync. Basic decisions on things like the utilization of timeouts just did not make sense. The dismissal of Foster was inevitable and the man responsible for his hiring, UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond, had the unenviable task of firing the popular UCLA football legend.
“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,” said Jarmond. “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.”
Tim Skipper, who was hired as a special assistant to Foster, will become the interim head coach, something he has some experience with. Skipper spent the entire 2024 season as the interim head coach at Fresno State, going 6-7 with a 28-20 loss to Northern Illinois in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Skipper’s Fresno State team lost to UCLA last season at the Rose Bowl in the final regular season game for both teams in 2024.
Foster released a statement that said in part, “Serving as the head coach at UCLA, my beloved alma mater, has been 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.
“To Bruin Nation… While this chapter ends differently than I had envisioned, UCLA Football has a bright future ahead. This program, with its rich tradition, will return to prominence.”
Jarmond and Erin Adkins, senior associate athletics director, will be compiling a committee of “accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats” and will do a national search for the next head football coach of the UCLA Bruins. Jarmond will not be making this choice by himself.
In the meantime, the top 25 recruiting class that Foster had lined up for 2026 is beginning to disintegrate, with seven players decommitting from the Bruins within 48 hours after the announcement of Foster’s dismissal.
The Bruins will be off in Week 4 and back in action in Week 5, when they travel to Evanston, Illinois to take on the Northwestern Wildcats, their first Big Ten Conference opponent of the season. The game will be played on Saturday, September 27 and will start at12:30 PST. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network (BTN). The Bruins desperately need to find a victory and change the narrative, at least for one weekend.