The UCLA Bruins Athletics Department made the tough decision to fire their football team’s head coach DeShaun Foster, who oversaw an 0-3 start to the season for the gridiron team in Westwood. Having been promoted to head coach following the sudden departure of Chip Kelly in January 2024, Foster coached a program that had a few leftovers from the Kelly era along with some new faces from the transfer portal as well. Complicating matters was the transition that UCLA as a whole for its entire set of athletic programs being in the process of transferring over to the Big Ten Conference, whose core of member institutions is based in the Midwest region of the country. So, with quite a few games located in places thousands of miles away from Southern California, the Bruins had a 5-7 record in the 2025 season. A couple of close losses on their home field at the Rose Bowl Stadium were actually critical in robbing the Bruins of a bowl bid in Foster’s first season, with tight defeats against the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the USC Trojans in the Bell Game. Most of the last remaining players from the Kelly era such as Ethan Garbers, Logan Loya, Jay Toia and Oluwafemi Oladejo ran their course of eligibility.

A big thing that occurred in the offseason for the Bruins was the late acquisition of a coveted quarterback in the transfer portal, which opens up at such unexpected times on the college football schedule(the NCAA has taken steps to reduce the transfer portal by allowing athletic departments of Division I schools to directly pay student-athletes as a result of the House settlement). UCLA initially had a transfer QB come over from Appalachian State in Joey Aguilar, a northern California native, to be the new starting QB. But after an NIL(name, image and likeness) deal dispute that occurred at the University of Tennessee between Nico Iamaleava(pronounced E-ahm-ah-lei-ah-vah) and the Volunteers athletic department, the college football QB landscape changed. At least between the Big Ten and SEC, as Iamaleava decided to transfer over to UCLA. In response, Aguilar chose to transfer to Tennessee to take Nico’s spot. So, with Nico Iamaleava, the Bruins seemingly had a top-tier QB to compete against the top-tier programs in the Big Ten including Ohio State, who defeated Iamaleava in the first round of the College Football Playoff on their way to a national championship. Along with other transfers and a new offensive coordinator in Tino Sunseri, the Bruins were looking like a team on the rise. Their scheduled opponents in the Big Ten for 2025 are Northwestern, Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State on the road, along with Penn State, Maryland, Nebraska and Washington at home along with a game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against USC to close out the season. Their non-conference games were against former PAC-12 opponent Utah, UNLV and New Mexico. Two of those games were in Pasadena, so it would be expected that the Bruins would win at least two of their first three games, right? Wrong, so very wrong.

Their opening game was a blowout loss against the Utes, who had a bunch of their fans at the Rose Bowl as Utah had dynamic QB Devin Dampier spearhead an offensive effort over the Bruins. Nico Iamaleava(whose brother Madden was an original commit out of high school to UCLA, but then changed his commitment to Arkansas before jumping back in the transfer portal and deciding to go back to West LA to be with his brother) did not have a good Rose Bowl debut, only throwing for 136 yards and an interception along with one touchdown pass. A 43-10 loss could be pinned on the defense, which had a tough game in not being able to stop the Utah offense at all on third downs. So, it was a total team failure there. The next game was a road trip to Las Vegas to take on the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, who play their home games at Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders. That game was against a team that had already played two early games on their schedule and the Rebels came out blazing. Along with some tough penalties, UCLA was dug into a deep hole early and had to claw back in the third quarter to make the game somewhat dramatic in the late stages. Iamaleava had a couple of touchdowns, but he unfortunately threw an interception on the final drive of the game where the Bruins were seeking a potential game-tying score that could have forced overtime. So, a 30-23 loss had the team at an 0-2 record early.

Their third and final game of their nonconference schedule against New Mexico was on a Friday night at the Rose Bowl. Another slow start occurred where the Lobos scored a couple of early TDs, but thankfully the Bruins got a first-half end zone score with an Iamaleava TD pass to Titus Mokiao-Atimalala(one of the last remaining players from the Kelly era) cutting the New Mexico lead in half. A red zone stand that resulted in a fumble and a recovered muffed punt gave the Bruins a chance to tie the game, but they instead settled for a long field goal made by Mateen Bhaghani. Unfortunately, the Lobos offense came back to life in the fourth quarter, where they scored three touchdowns and forced a turnover on downs and an interception by Iamaleava against the Bruins offense. A 35-10 loss was all that was needed over a long weekend for UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond on Sun, Sept 14 to fire DeShaun Foster, who unfortunately showed that his inexperience in head coaching did not improve the program.

With that hard decision comes some top prospects in the high school recruiting pipeline de-committing from UCLA, for the moment being. But now this gives the athletic department for the Bruins more time to find a long-term leader capable of making this program great like it once was under coaches such as Terry Donahue, Rich Neuheisel and Jim Mora Jr. So, in the interim, associate head coach Tim Skipper will coach this inexperienced Bruins team through their Big Ten schedule, where they will have to go at least 6-3 in order to be eligible for a bowl game. Their first conference game will be at Northwestern’s temporary on-campus stadium in Evanston, Ill. Then, a matchup in Pasadena against the number two ranked team in the country in Penn State, who is hungry for redemption after being one win away from the national title game last year. Then, a trip to East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans and then a home game against the Maryland Terrapins. That’s definitely hard, but so are trips to Indiana and Ohio State, two CFP teams from 2024. Home games against Nebraska(who the Bruins beat last year in Lincoln) and Washington can hopefully be a comfort, even though the Rose Bowl is the least home-field friendly venue in the nation in all perpetuity. The Bruins have a long way to go, but hopefully they will avoid any more tough news regarding the program on the field and off it. The news of transfer backup QB Pierce Clarkson being arrested on an unspecified felony charge and suspended indefinitely from the football team didn’t help matters. Either way, a new chapter will begin soon for the powdered blue and gold team in West Los Angeles, where basketball is worshipped much more than football.