SMQB: UCLA Football Makes Almost Unprecedented Coaching Change
It's been 67 years since UCLA changed football coaches this early in the season.
I don’t recall ever writing multiple Sunday Morning Quarterback articles in the same week, much less on back-to-back days, but these are not ordinary times for UCLA football.
This morning, UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster was fired by the Bruins.
The only other time UCLA made a head coaching change before now was 1958. Following the death of Red Sanders in August 1958, UCLA Athletic Director Wilbur Johns promoted his top assistant George Dickerson to head coach. At the time the Eugene Register-Guard wrote, “Johns said he feels confident that UCLA supporters will see a continuation of the ‘Well-prepared football teams we have been accustomed to under the masterful coaching of Sanders.’”
But Dickerson only coached three games.
He was admitted to UCLA Medical Center the night before UCLA played Florida for nervous exhaustion, leading to Bill Barnes being named head coach for the remainder of the season, according to the Eugene Register-Guard. Barnes led the team until he resigned in 1964 when he learned that J.D. Morgan would not renew his contract. In his place, Oregon State head coach and former UCLA assistant Tommy Prothro was hired.
That’s the only other time that UCLA has changed coaches before November in a season. So, we are pretty much in unprecedented territory for UCLA.
Tim Skipper
Tim Skipper is an interesting choice to serve as the interim head coach. Skipper was hired this offseason to serve as Special Assistant to the Head Coach. Last season, he served as Fresno State’s interim head coach following the resignation of Jeff Tedford in July 2024 due to health concerns. Skipper had previously served as acting head coach at the end of the 2023 season when Tedford temporarily left the program due to a health issue.
Overall, Skipper was 7-7 at Fresno State as acting and interim head coach of the Bulldogs.
Looking at the current staff, it becomes easier to see why Skipper was selected as the interim head coach. He is the only member of the current staff with any kind of head coaching experience.
Obviously, there’s very little chance that Skipper will be head coach of the program after this season. I wouldn’t say “No chance.” But short of the team suddenly turning things around and winning at least six of their final nine, I don’t think it will happen.
In general, I’d say it’s highly unlikely that he will have the interim tag removed.
Martin Jarmond
While Martin Jarmond remains in charge of the Athletic Department, I wouldn’t count on that remaining the case.
When Julio Frenk was at the University of Miami, he used profits from the UHealth medical system to fund major upgrades in the Miami athletic department.
So, unlike Gene Block, who insisted on loaning the athletic department money with a low interest rate, Frenk was willing to move money around to fix things at Miami. Now, it’s important to note that Miami is a private institution (think Southern Cal). They were only accountable to the Board of Trustees. But if he did that at Miami, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he is doing it in Westwood as well.
Of course, we could debate if UCLA should do that, but we’re not going to.
The fact that we finally have a Chancellor who recognizes the importance of Bruin athletics should be enough, at least for now.
Last week, I estimated that it would cost UCLA just under $7.83 million.
That’s a big chunk of change.
This morning, I was reading that they may be trying to negotiate it down to the 60% mark. If that happens, and frankly, there’s no reason for Foster to take less, it would drop the amount he’s owed to $7.29 million.
But it doesn’t matter. The money is coming from somewhere, whether it’s UCLA Health profits or somewhere else. It’s done.
If UCLA were to fire Jarmond as well, it would cost somewhere in the ballpark of $8 million, based on the report of Jarmond’s contract extension which were reported by Ben Bolch last December.
So, adding Jarmond to the unemployment line may or may not cost more than Frenk is willing to spend to fix the program. We’ll have to wait and see.
But if Frenk is the one responsible, and I have no reason to believe he isn’t, I wouldn’t bet against more changes coming for UCLA Athletics.
Timing
Let’s talk for a moment about the timing of this firing.
There can be little doubt that the trajectory of the program was the primary reason the plug was pulled now.
UCLA has not had a lead in any of their first three games. Attendance is in the toilet. Basically, the program was entering a doom loop.
The problem with that is that football doesn’t just affect the program. It affects the entire athletic department. Football is the revenue machine that funds all the Olympic sports. To be sure, I know I have joked that we’ve become a water polo school (though, an argument can be made that Mick Cronin has the UCLA basketball program in much better shape than Steve Alford had it in). But when football revenue drops, all the Olympic sports also suffer.
So, a doom loop for UCLA football isn’t good for the athletic department as a whole.
Will firing Foster now solve the attendance/revenue problem? It wouldn’t solve it immediately. There’s no chance of that unless Tim Skipper amazingly wins the next games. With all due respect to Coach Skipper, there are just two chances of that happening—slim and none.
So, why do it now?
Well, as I wrote when Chancellor Frenk was hired, he became quite a football fan at Miami. He was at the Utah game and I fully expect him at the Rose Bowl on October 4 when the Bruins play Penn State because he likes to spend time during games with students. So, don’t be surprised to see him hanging in or near the Den at some point during that game.
What likely happened here is that the Chancellor heard from enough people to know that this season is not redeemable and the decision was made that a change was necessary.
It certainly seems to be coming from the Chancellor and not Jarmond. After all, Jarmond refused to fire Kelly when the writing was on the wall that he had worn out his welcome.
Firing Foster now sends a message that UCLA is serious about winning. Doing it now gives the school plenty of time to hire a replacement.
Any coach with any interest in the position (think Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith) is now officially on notice that UCLA has an opening for a head coach.
I certainly don’t expect the position to be filled that soon. If UCLA decides to make a huge hire of someone not currently coaching (like Chris Peterson or Urban Meyer) which most of us wouldn’t expect, I could easily see an earlier announcement in order to hold the recruiting class together.
To be sure, there are already reports of recruits decommitting. Indeed, Ben Bolch of the LA Times reports:
The Bruins already appear to have lost three high school recruits after Johnnie Jones, a four-star offensive tackle from Bradenton, Fla.; Anthony Jones, a three-star defensive lineman from Irvine Crean Lutheran High; and Yahya Gaad, a three-star edge rusher from Medina, Tenn., said they were no longer committed to the school.
And, don’t forget, current UCLA players have a 30-day window to enter the Transfer Portal starting tomorrow.
The key thing to think about here is that this move today wasn’t completely foreseeable.
That’s not to say no one saw this coming. Given the trajectory of the program and the fact that the media seemed to ready to ask the tough questions in Foster’s postgame interview on Friday, it’s not unsurprising that this happened today. It was clear that Foster wasn’t going to make it past this season. When you get throttled in one of the three remaining games where you have the best chance to win, the writing is pretty much on the wall. But, again, UCLA hasn’t changed head coaches this early in the season since 1958.
So, I think most of us figured that we would slog through a terrible season and fire Foster at the end of it. That changed this morning with Foster’s termination.
What happens next?
Well, other than Skipper taking over and trying to prepare the team to play Northwestern two weeks from yesterday, I’m not sure.
But for the first time in a while, there is a reason to be a Bruin optimist.
Go Bruins!!!
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