"(or didn’t witness, thanks, CBS Sports Network)" I thought the B1G was going to solve this problem. and b) what constitutes "cause"? Not losing every game I guess.
What I found unacceptable was the fact that when I tried to watch a replay of the first quarter on the website, there was no archive of the game available. Ugh.
It was a Mountain West home game, and the Mountain West’s broadcast partner is either FS1 or CBS Sports. CBS Sports likely selected that as their top game over Fox/FS1.
Joe, with all due respect, I am not clear as to how you addressed in your article the headline "what we've learned about UCLA football." To me, we learned that we have a team undeserving of watching--grossly lacking in talent and a coaching staff (especially Foster) that does not have a clue as to how to coach a team or deal with the shit show this team has become.
Talking about going to bowl is akin to saying pigs can fly. I would be surprised if this team wins one game this season. The Detroit Free Press on Yahoo.com (might have the name wrong) rated all teams in the Big Ten and UCLA was the lowest--below Northwestern and Maryland. So where do you think we win half our games or even two games?
The only question is does UCLA clean house now or after the season.
You may say that in hindsight because " facts are stubborn things ", quoting the late President Reagan. However, when Jarmond announced the surprise hire, nobody anticipated that Foster would fall that far that fast and this early in his tenure. Given his illustrious player background and however little coaching experience he accumulated then, who could foresee it ?
The fault lies with Jarmond taking the easy way out with this hire. To him, it was a gamble calculated to bypass the long hard labor required of a coaching search, not to mention the inherent advance work prior to the official search itself. Call him lazy if you will but Chip's sudden departure likely influenced Jarmond making such move.
To redeem himself, Jarmond better initiated some sort of behind the scene scouting of possible candidates now, as we speak. A few years back, with their coach floundering, USC's succeeded in prying lose a winning coach from none other than Oklahoma, the perennial NCAA powerhouse. The hiring scheme started during their incumbent chancellor's finals months in office, even before the succeeding chancellor from North Carolina arrived. Everything was orchestrated well to a fault,
The team sucks right now. Down by at least 20 points in the first half of the first two games. Foster isn't a head coach. Real dumb decision by Jarmond.
As bad as the team is, they didn't give up, which shows they have at least some pride in themselves and what they're trying to do for their coaching staff. DSF is one of the greatest RBs in UCLA football history (#5 in career total yardage) and an admirable player's coach, but the lack of proven experience is hurting the program as he tries to learn what works and what doesn't work. I have a feeling the UCLA administration will take the easiest and cheapest route and do nothing for the next year or two, but hope they at least consider replacing the AD sooner rather than later.
Yes indeed, Ms. Tamara, it definitely makes the current hole that much deeper to climb out of for whoever is brought in to try and resurrect the UCLA football program.
While talk about firing Coach Foster is appropriate, our AD should be included in this discussion. What are his buyout terms? Football under his leadership has been horrible.
I really don’t want to whine and scream for somebody’s job after a few poor performances…but the college sports landscape has changed dramatically the last few years, and the principal revenue driver is football. In the past, you might have said “coach Donahuek is such a nice fellow, maybe he’ll beat SC one of these years” or “Karl Dorrell is one of ours, an alumni !”, but…this is a business, and to paraphrase Ray Stantz from Ghostbusters, “they expect results”. Feels like the Bruins just don’t get it, and the AD and coaching staff don’t seem to be making any progress. There may be a memo coming soon from The Big Ten reminding UCLA that, “if you want to collect the money…you have to at least try”.
I recently re-read the article Dmitri wrote when Foster was hired. I think it was titled along the lines of DeShaun Foster doesn't deserve what's about to happen to him. And here we are discussing his job after 14 games as a brand new head coach that's never even been a coordinator. In my eyes, he deserves better.
Now, I have no idea if DeShaun Foster will become a quality head coach. Currently, he is getting on the job training as our AD hired him in a panic situation far too late in the recruiting cycle last year. He had to scramble to create a staff and salvage what was left of the recruiting cycle. This would have been a tough assignment for an accomplished head coach, let alone a guy who had only been a running backs coach.
As of now, the team looks horrendously bad, particularly in the trenches. We have some decent skill players and a quarterback with some skills. Our lines are patchwork products of the transfer portal and some are last minute additions. The upcoming 2026 recruiting class is actually Foster's first class where he had a full year to recruit. Currently it's a Top 25 Class according to 247 and has some quality linemen included in the class. Unlike Chip Kelly, Foster is recruiting high school athletes far more aggressively. And, the class is wide ranging geographically. The challenge he faces will be to keep the class on board, which will require winning a decent number of games this season. There is no way that Foster will or should be fired during the 2025 season. I find it doubtful that he would or should be fired after the season unless a total collapse happens.
I don't have much confidence in a successful season. That being said, I think the odds of Coach Foster improving as a head coach are greater than the odds of AD Martin Jarmond selecting a quality head coach for football. UCLA Football needs a culture change and that will need to start with the new chancellor. Just firing Foster without a deeper analysis of the entire Athletic Department would be short sighted in my opinion.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I will never forgive Gene Block for cratering the football program and undermining what is supposed to be one of our strongest assets.
He refused to allow Chip to be fired and forced the next head coach to retain the holdovers that Jarmond (inexplicably) reuped hindered our ability to hire a more ready candidate at an already bad time (and that we ended up replacing anyways).
"(or didn’t witness, thanks, CBS Sports Network)" I thought the B1G was going to solve this problem. and b) what constitutes "cause"? Not losing every game I guess.
I caught the first half on the CBS Sports App. You didn't miss much. 🤣
I watched the first quarter on cbs livestream. I never did figure out how to watch the rest of it. Probably just as well...
What I found unacceptable was the fact that when I tried to watch a replay of the first quarter on the website, there was no archive of the game available. Ugh.
It was a Mountain West home game, and the Mountain West’s broadcast partner is either FS1 or CBS Sports. CBS Sports likely selected that as their top game over Fox/FS1.
Joe, with all due respect, I am not clear as to how you addressed in your article the headline "what we've learned about UCLA football." To me, we learned that we have a team undeserving of watching--grossly lacking in talent and a coaching staff (especially Foster) that does not have a clue as to how to coach a team or deal with the shit show this team has become.
Talking about going to bowl is akin to saying pigs can fly. I would be surprised if this team wins one game this season. The Detroit Free Press on Yahoo.com (might have the name wrong) rated all teams in the Big Ten and UCLA was the lowest--below Northwestern and Maryland. So where do you think we win half our games or even two games?
The only question is does UCLA clean house now or after the season.
We've learned a head football coach who appears to be totally lost.
He was totally lost at the jump of his hire date
You may say that in hindsight because " facts are stubborn things ", quoting the late President Reagan. However, when Jarmond announced the surprise hire, nobody anticipated that Foster would fall that far that fast and this early in his tenure. Given his illustrious player background and however little coaching experience he accumulated then, who could foresee it ?
The fault lies with Jarmond taking the easy way out with this hire. To him, it was a gamble calculated to bypass the long hard labor required of a coaching search, not to mention the inherent advance work prior to the official search itself. Call him lazy if you will but Chip's sudden departure likely influenced Jarmond making such move.
To redeem himself, Jarmond better initiated some sort of behind the scene scouting of possible candidates now, as we speak. A few years back, with their coach floundering, USC's succeeded in prying lose a winning coach from none other than Oklahoma, the perennial NCAA powerhouse. The hiring scheme started during their incumbent chancellor's finals months in office, even before the succeeding chancellor from North Carolina arrived. Everything was orchestrated well to a fault,
didn't we already know that?
Well, true. But it's being confirmed every week.
it might not even be as bad as we think. Wait until we play Penn State and Ohio State. We could very well be 0-9 or 1-8 by week 10.
The team sucks right now. Down by at least 20 points in the first half of the first two games. Foster isn't a head coach. Real dumb decision by Jarmond.
As bad as the team is, they didn't give up, which shows they have at least some pride in themselves and what they're trying to do for their coaching staff. DSF is one of the greatest RBs in UCLA football history (#5 in career total yardage) and an admirable player's coach, but the lack of proven experience is hurting the program as he tries to learn what works and what doesn't work. I have a feeling the UCLA administration will take the easiest and cheapest route and do nothing for the next year or two, but hope they at least consider replacing the AD sooner rather than later.
P.S.--"We were close" (again)
Hence why our AD and sports admin should be fired for gross negligence. They are bleeding the equity out of the UCLA brand
Sorry, the verdict is gross incompetence, not negligence.
I stand corrected. I think we agree on the same idea
Why not both?
Sure !
I agree about DSF and my heart goes out to him.
But the cheapest route usn't necessarily the cheapest.
The lost revenue and fanbase outweighs the buyout, let alone recruiting which will suffer as well.
Football is supposed to be the #1 revenue producer in college athletics, and we are moving ever deeper into the RED zone.
Yes indeed, Ms. Tamara, it definitely makes the current hole that much deeper to climb out of for whoever is brought in to try and resurrect the UCLA football program.
While talk about firing Coach Foster is appropriate, our AD should be included in this discussion. What are his buyout terms? Football under his leadership has been horrible.
,
I really don’t want to whine and scream for somebody’s job after a few poor performances…but the college sports landscape has changed dramatically the last few years, and the principal revenue driver is football. In the past, you might have said “coach Donahuek is such a nice fellow, maybe he’ll beat SC one of these years” or “Karl Dorrell is one of ours, an alumni !”, but…this is a business, and to paraphrase Ray Stantz from Ghostbusters, “they expect results”. Feels like the Bruins just don’t get it, and the AD and coaching staff don’t seem to be making any progress. There may be a memo coming soon from The Big Ten reminding UCLA that, “if you want to collect the money…you have to at least try”.
Or better yet, they might say Big Ten Conference has no room for high school football. Please return to where you belong.
I recently re-read the article Dmitri wrote when Foster was hired. I think it was titled along the lines of DeShaun Foster doesn't deserve what's about to happen to him. And here we are discussing his job after 14 games as a brand new head coach that's never even been a coordinator. In my eyes, he deserves better.
Now, I have no idea if DeShaun Foster will become a quality head coach. Currently, he is getting on the job training as our AD hired him in a panic situation far too late in the recruiting cycle last year. He had to scramble to create a staff and salvage what was left of the recruiting cycle. This would have been a tough assignment for an accomplished head coach, let alone a guy who had only been a running backs coach.
As of now, the team looks horrendously bad, particularly in the trenches. We have some decent skill players and a quarterback with some skills. Our lines are patchwork products of the transfer portal and some are last minute additions. The upcoming 2026 recruiting class is actually Foster's first class where he had a full year to recruit. Currently it's a Top 25 Class according to 247 and has some quality linemen included in the class. Unlike Chip Kelly, Foster is recruiting high school athletes far more aggressively. And, the class is wide ranging geographically. The challenge he faces will be to keep the class on board, which will require winning a decent number of games this season. There is no way that Foster will or should be fired during the 2025 season. I find it doubtful that he would or should be fired after the season unless a total collapse happens.
I don't have much confidence in a successful season. That being said, I think the odds of Coach Foster improving as a head coach are greater than the odds of AD Martin Jarmond selecting a quality head coach for football. UCLA Football needs a culture change and that will need to start with the new chancellor. Just firing Foster without a deeper analysis of the entire Athletic Department would be short sighted in my opinion.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I will never forgive Gene Block for cratering the football program and undermining what is supposed to be one of our strongest assets.
He refused to allow Chip to be fired and forced the next head coach to retain the holdovers that Jarmond (inexplicably) reuped hindered our ability to hire a more ready candidate at an already bad time (and that we ended up replacing anyways).
I hate that man with a passion.