UCLA Bruins at Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors Game Thread

Aug 31

The DeShaun Foster era kicks off today when the Bruins face the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors. (Photo Credit: Jan Kim Lim/uclabruins.com)

Today, the UCLA Bruins open up what may be one of the most anticipated football seasons ever. It’s a season of changes, not just because the Bruins are playing in a new conference, but also because college football begins a new era with an expanded 12-team playoff.

Earlier this week, when the Big Ten announced the conference tiebreaker, I also explained how the 12-team playoff will work. First-round games will be played at the on-campus venues of seeds 5-8 before moving to the New Year’s Six bowl games for the quarterfinals and the semifinals. That means, in theory, the Rose Bowl could host not one but two CFP games every year if UCLA wins enough games to be seeded 5 through 8.

But let’s be realistic as we head into this season.

The last time UCLA changed head coaches brought much anticipation as Bruin fans had very high expectations for the Chip Kelly era. I remember walking through the tunnel a few minutes after kickoff and wondering how many points we had scored already because all of us, myself included, expected that UCLA Chip would be as exciting as Oregon Chip.

Boy, did Chip prove all of us wrong.

Instead of coming in and improving the talent UCLA had on the roster, he decided completely tear down the Bruin program, resulting in an exodus of top talent from UCLA. How much talent left Westwood? I stopped counting when the number exceeded 70 players.

Unfortunately, the Chip Kelly talent drain wasn’t followed with an influx of talent through recruiting which provided results which were so inconsistent that, by the end of last season, had plenty of fans looking to end the Chip Kelly Experience at UCLA.

But Martin Jarmond didn’t “read the room” and fire Kelly. Instead, Kelly decided he didn’t want to be in Westwood any more, possibly because he was smart enough to figure out that he wasn’t going to be able to be successful enough this year to save his job as his buyout decreased.

That doesn’t necessarily bode well for this year’s team.

After leaving the program to take a new job as the running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, DeShaun Foster came back to Westwood a few weeks later to take over the program. To be sure, there are rightly questions about whether Coach Foster was the best choice for the job, mostly because he has never been a head coach before and Bruin fans remember the last time UCLA hired a first-time head coach.

It was the first (of several) head coaching hires by new Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and the new head man was former Bruin receiver Karl Dorrell. It was a decision which set the program back years. Some may argue that the program is still recovering from it, though the recruiting of the Rick Neuheisel era restocked the program with enough talent that the beginning of the Jim Mora era were the most successful years since the Bob Toledo era.

From the day he was hired until today, Coach Foster has done a lot of things right, his speech at Big Ten Media Days notwithstanding. Recruiting is on the rise again and that seems to bode well for the future of Bruin football.

Ultimately, though, as we saw during the Jim Mora era, good recruiting doesn’t always result in wins on the football field. That brings us back to the primary question facing DeShaun Foster and the Bruins: Can a first-time head coach who has never been a coordinator be successful in one of the toughest conferences in the country?

This afternoon, we get the first one of first twelve answers to that question. To be sure, patience is needed.

Coach Foster’s first season as head coach at UCLA could be considered successful if the team wins only the final two games of the season. He seems to understand that he needs to rebuild the program through recruiting and that isn’t going to happen overnight. The quickest way to fix recruiting, though, is through wins on the field and that starts this afternoon with a winnable game against Hawai’i on national television.

Join us in the comments below as we we begin a new era in UCLA football as well as college football.

Here are the Keys to the Game for the Bruins tonight:

Keys to the Game

Let’s move on to the keys to the game.

1. Stop the Run and Shoot

Hawai’i quarterback Brayden Schager made a big improvement from 2022 to 2023. Now, he’s a seasoned senior quarterback with plenty of receivers to throw to. The Bruins need to keep Schager from finding his receivers, either through a solid pass rush, great pass coverage or a combination of both.

2. Chip-wich?

Goodbye, Chip Kelly! I hope you didn’t forget to write a buyout check on your way out the door.

Eric Bienemy needs to effectively call, and the Bruin offense needs to effectively execute, an offense which has been described as “complicated.” Is it too complicated? Is it too rigid? Will Ethan Garbers, TJ Harden and company be able to execute it efficiently? Will Bienemy have to adjust and simplify it?

Those are questions which only the Bruin offense can answer on the field.

3. DeShaun’s Debut

How will new UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster do in his debut at the helm?

It was clear that the Bruin players were elated to hear the news that Foster was hired as the Bruins’ head coach. But how will he fare in his first opportunity running the program after only serving as a position coach before now?

It’s a reasonable question which should be asked of any position coach making the leap to head coach. It’s hard not to be rooting for him to succeed at this point and, after being hired so late in the coaching carousel, he basically gets a pass on this season even if Battered Bruin Syndrome has taught us to expect the worst over the past 25 years.

Listen to the Game With TMB!

Today’s game is on CBS with Rich Waltz and Ross Tucker calling the game. If you would rather listen Josh Lewin and Matt Stevens call today’s game, you can listen to the game online while chatting in the TMB game thread. Just right click on the link and open it in another tab so you can have it playing while you chat in the comments below. That way, you can listen to Josh Lewin, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook call today’s game instead of Waltz and Tucker on CBS.

Join your fellow Bruins discussing today’s game in the comments section below, but before you get there, here’s how to watch the first game of the DeShaun Foster era and of the Big Ten era:

UCLA Football (0-0)

Opponent: Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors (1-0)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 4-0
When: 4:30 pm PT, Saturday, August 31, 2024
Where: Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, Honolulu, HI
Live TV: CBS with Rich Waltz, Ross Tucker, and Tiffany Blackmon
Live Stream: CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports app and Paramount+ with Showtime
Radio/Audio:
AM 1150 in Los Angeles with Josh Lewin, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 119 (UCLA Call)
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes:
UCLA
Hawai’i
Rebroadcast:
Ummm…I think we may have gotten spoiled over the years where Pac-12 Networks actually indicated which game would air in the Pac-12 Football in 60 format. At this time, it does not appear that Big Ten Network will actually be telling us which teams are appearing on a particular episode of Big Ten Football in 60. Well, that’s disappointing. Hopefully, that changes. You may or may not be able to stream the game after the fact on the CBS Sports app, Paramount+ with Showtime or Big Ten Plus. Right now, I’ve got no information on how to watch tomorrow’s game other than live.

Go Bruins!!!

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