UCLA Unlocked: DeShaun Foster makes a bumble recovery in Las Vegas

DeShaun Foster was hired on a hunch.

What other way was there to evaluate someone who had no experience for the role he was being brought in to fill?

The hope was that the longtime position coach could quickly grow on the job as UCLA’s football boss while leveraging his unrivaled passion for restoring his alma mater to the glory it had last enjoyed during Foster’s playing days.

Nearly a year and a half later, there are an increasing number of signs indicating that Foster’s hire might have been a smart gamble.

After the Bruins won four of their last six games to end 2024 with a 5-7 record, Foster didn’t simply point to that late-season success as a reason to stay on the same path. Instead, he quickly pivoted to revamp a coaching staff that had been hired on the fly and generated one of college football’s most disappointing offenses.

Among the newcomers were several dogged recruiters who immediately revived the team’s ability to land the sort of elite high school recruits who had usually looked elsewhere under the Chip Kelly regime. UCLA’s 2026 recruiting class, which includes a quartet of four-star players and is currently ranked No. 21 in the country by 247Sports.com, could be the Bruins’ best since Jim Mora challenged the likes of Michigan and Ohio State for the nation’s top prospects.

Another encouraging development revealed itself Thursday inside a Mandalay Bay convention center in Las Vegas. Foster chased away the ghosts of his 2024 Big Ten media days bumble by delivering a 6 1/2-minute opening monologue that presented a coherent message amid a touch of self-deprecating humor, the coach referring to his infamous “We’re in L.A.” line from a year ago as “the most obvious geography lesson in Big Ten history.”

“You’re gonna see growth in my team this year, and you saw growth with me with this press conference,” Foster told a small group of Los Angeles-based reporters afterward. “But, you know, I was looking forward to this, and like I told you guys before, I’ve been waiting on this opportunity to come back out here.”

Perhaps the biggest difference between Foster’s latest public performance and his stumble a year ago was that he actually prepared this time, clutching several sheets of paper instead of riffing off the top of his head to regrettable results.

That’s not to say that Foster has fully silenced the doubters. As his team prepares to open training camp Wednesday in Costa Mesa, there are unknowns galore about a roster that will feature an almost entirely new defense and a transfer quarterback who has only a month to master the offense after transferring from Tennessee.

The baseline for success in Year 2 under Foster should be at least six wins and an accompanying bowl game, which would still fall well short of what the Bruins accomplished with Foster on their roster. Remember, they nearly made the first BCS title game at the end of Foster’s freshman season in 1998 (Damn you, lack of instant replay on the alleged Brad Melsby fumble).

But a winning season combined with a horde of promising prospects on the way would serve as the biggest signal yet that maybe, just maybe, Foster is the right guy for the job.

Promising debut

It would have been easy for UCLA to squirrel away its new 6-foot-6 quarterback until the season started, saving Nico Iamaleava from a fusillade of questions that felt like a Congressional hearing.

But there was the transfer from Tennessee on Thursday, facing one of the biggest scrums of reporters near the end of the final Big Ten media day.

“I wanted to bring him here,” Foster said. “Just, you know, it’s time to let you tell your story. A lot of people wrote a book for you and didn’t talk to him about it, so I just wanted him to be able to come out here … and, like, really tell his truth.”

Iamaleava told a fairly straightforward story about wanting to move closer to his Long Beach home to play in front of family for a team that he considered attending out of high school. More importantly, he never came close to getting frazzled by a series of probing, repetitive questions about the circumstances of his departure from Tennessee.

“He’s just somebody that I don’t think can really get rattled, you know?” Foster said. “Personality wise, he’s kind of quiet a little bit, but, you know, has confidence. But a quarterback, you’ve got to be able to function with stuff [happening] around you.”

Letting Iamaleava get the media scrutiny out of the way now was a smart move that will let him fully focus on something far more important — preparing for the season opener against Utah on Aug. 30 at the Rose Bowl.

Looking ahead

For the first time since it slogged through the San Bernardino heat in 2016, UCLA will hold its football training camp off campus.

The team will use the Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa, a previous home to the Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders.

The site’s proximity to coastal breezes could prevent the Bruins from spending as much time soaking in ice baths as they did in San Bernardino, where temperatures routinely reached triple digits.

Right tackle Garrett DiGiorgio said the team’s hotel was only four minutes away from the practice fields, meaning players won’t be stuck on buses for a long commute.

The move to train off campus was made in large part because UCLA is installing a new grass practice field outside the Wasserman Center, but it could have additional benefits for a team that’s integrating dozens of transfers and high school freshmen.

A bear market?

This could be a historic year for UCLA sports.

After finishing fifth in the Learfield Directors Cup that measures broad-based success in college athletics, the Bruins could challenge for the top spot in 2025-26 based on an extraordinary combination of returning talent and gifted newcomers.

What’s perhaps most intriguing is that the football and men’s basketball teams could join their Olympic-sport counterparts in winning big upon the arrival of Iamaleava and point guard Donovan Dent.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Times, UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said he was bullish on the Bruins’ chances to follow up a prosperous debut Big Ten season with even greater success.

“A lot of people put in a lot of work to put us in this position, and we’re going to keep working, you know?” Jarmond told The Times. “So I’m really, really proud and I’m really excited about what we’re doing and where we’re going.”

Opinion time

UCLA has produced some legendary football coaches, from Terry Donahue to Red Sanders to Tommy Prothro. Its list of celebrated players is far longer, including numerous inductees into the college and pro football halls of fame.

Who are your favorites? If you had to pick four figures to place on a Mount Rushmore of UCLA football (say, along a Bel-Air hilltop overlooking campus), who would they be? Email your responses to uclasurveys@yahoo.com and we’ll post the results next week.

Remember when?

Foster has experience coming off a disappointing UCLA season with a tough opener at the Rose Bowl like his team will face late next month when Utah coach Kyle Willingham brings his team to Pasadena.

In their 2000 opener, the Bruins faced third-ranked Alabama at the Rose Bowl and it looked like things might get ugly. UCLA lost starting quarterback Cory Paus after the first drive with a sprained shoulder ligament. The Bruins fell behind when the Crimson Tide scored the first touchdown on a punt return.

But then backup quarterback Ryan McCann and Foster engineered a stunning 35-24 victory that coach Bob Toledo at the time called the second-greatest of his UCLA career behind only a double-overtime triumph against USC in 1996.

Foster tied a school record with 42 carries for what was then a career-high 187 yards and McCann completed 14 of 24 passes for 194 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown to Freddie Mitchell. You can watch that game here.

Unranked at the time, UCLA went on to win its first three games en route to a No. 6 ranking before finishing the season with a 6-6 record after a 21-20 loss to Wisconsin in the Sun Bowl.

In case you missed it

After successful Big Ten debut, UCLA has designs on something even bigger

‘It came down to me wanting to be back home’: Nico Iamaleava details move to UCLA

A year after stumbling at Big Ten media days, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster is poised and confident

Wide receiver Kaedin Robinson suing NCAA in bid to play for UCLA this season

‘It was a real blessing’: Ben Howland remains grateful long after leaving UCLA

Have something Bruin?

Thank you for reading the first UCLA Unlocked newsletter. Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future newsletter? Email me at ben.bolch@latimes.com, and follow me on X @latbbolch. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.