SMQB: What We've Learned About UCLA Football After Week Two

So much for the "Discipline" in "Discipline, Respect and Enthusiasm".

(Photo Credit: Isabella Serafini/uclabruins.com)

---

Let’s start today with the postgame interviews.

One of the things which hurt UCLA last night a lot were the 14 penalties the Bruins were called for, resulting in 129 penalty yards. When asked about the nature of all the penalties, UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster replied:

“Just being undisciplined.”

That is despite the fact that the entire UCLA coaching staff was wearing shirts which read “D.R.E Discipline Respect Enthusiasm” and didn’t even have the familiar UCLA script logo on them.

In other words, more than 18 months into his tenure as UCLA head football coach, Foster still has yet to get his players to focus in on his first pillar.

His reply, when asked how he was asked how he was going to emphasize discipline moving forward, was simple:

“Just gonna keep pounding it into them.”

Because that has worked so well already.

Ben Bolch of the LA Times asked about the fact that it was the team’s second consecutive game where they fell behind big early. Foster sounded like someone who isn’t sure how to stop it. He responded:

“I've been trying to do stuff at practice to help us start fast, like we do a lot of things at the beginning of practice. So, it's just something that I…just it's…we’ve got to figure it out…we’ve got to figure it out.”

He didn’t sound clueless while saying that. He sounded frustrated and as if he isn’t exactly sure how to solve the problem.

This is exactly the kind of thing you would expect from someone who has been promoted to a job they were not ready for.

Coach, let me suggest a solution to the problem. Start Monday’s practice with 100-yard sprints until guys are so tired they are about to drop. Then, send everyone who didn’t commit a poor discipline penalty in to watch film and keep everyone who did out to run some more. They will get the message fast.

The two players who spoke after the game were Nico Iamaleava and Gary Smith III. While Iamaleava took the blame for the loss, he almost sounded like someone who is completely unsure of what’s going on and how to fix it.

---

Smith was right. If there was a bright spot to last night’s loss, it’s the team didn’t quit.

They fought back and were in a position to tie the game on their final drive before Iamaleava threw his only interception of the game.

It’s easy to jump in and pile on after the first half we witnessed (or didn’t witness, thanks, CBS Sports Network) last night.

This team certainly has plenty of issues. During the first half, I was starting to get concerned that three wins might be a lot for this team to accomplish — and it still might be.

But the fact of the matter is that things did get better in the second half than they got last week against Utah.

I will admit that I was starting to think that a Kiffin-esque tarmac termination could be in order. Now, I’m still not thinking Foster will—or should—survive to coach this team next season, but the Bruins are now moving into the easiest part of the schedule.

They definitely need to win these next two games. If they lose both—and that is a possibility, Foster should probably be fired sooner rather than later because the team would then be 0-4 and they probably won’t have much of a path to get to .500 and bowl eligibility. Even splitting the next two games will still make bowl eligibility tough this year, considering the rest of UCLA’s schedule.

Make no mistake. There will likely be plenty of reasons that UCLA should move on from Foster, but the team finally showed some fight in the second half.

Given that New Mexico beat Idaho State by a bigger margin than UNLV did and they weren’t completely crushed by Michigan yesterday, they may be better than they are getting credit for. That may make Friday night’s game tougher than expected.

---

How Much Will It Cost to Fire Foster?

So, while the Bruins were down big during the first half last night, I did pull up the details of DeShaun Foster’s contract, specifically his buyout.

He is currently in the second year of a five-year contract. He’s being paid $3.1 million from February 1, 2025 through January 31, 2026. Each year, he is scheduled for a $100,000 raise. If he were to be employed through to end of the current contract, he would make $9.9 million for Years 3, 4 and 5 of his deal. He has approximately five months left on Year 2.

If he is fired without cause before December 1, 2025, his buyout is equal to 70% of what’s left on the contract. That $6.93 million for Years 3,4, and 5 plus 70% of whatever is left of Year 2 when he’s fired. Currently, that’s approximately $904K.

That means his buyout today is about $7.83 million. If he is fired at the end of the season but before December 2nd, it would be about $7.29 million.

On December 2nd, the buyout drops to 60% of what’s left. That’s $5.94 million for Years 3, 4, and 5 plus about $310K for the remainder of Year 2. That means the buyout drops to about $6.25 million on December 2nd.

In the event that Foster was retained for next season, the buyout would drop to 50% of what’s left on December 2, 2026. That’s approximately $3.61 million.

While that may prove to be the sweet spot, that’s an awful lot of bad football we might have to endure—and a lot of empty seats UCLA may find themselves with—if things don’t get better immediately.


Go Bruins.

---

Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.