DeShaun Foster, UCLA: Meet The 2024 New College Football Head Coaches

2024 New College Football Head Coaches

DeShaun Foster, UCLA

Previous Life: A superstar get for UCLA, he ran for over 3,000 yards and 39 touchdowns - and caught four touchdown passes - in his four seasons with the Bruins. … All-Pac-10 in 2000 and 2001. … Drafted in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft by Carolina, he ran for 3,570 yards and 11 touchdowns in this five seasons with the Panthers, and spent his final season with San Francisco in 2008. … He didn’t get into coaching until 2013, working as an assistant at UCLA before taking on the running back coach job at Texas Tech in 2016. … UCLA running back coach over the last seven seasons. The Bruins finished 6th in the nation in rushing in 2022 and 17th last season.

Top Line of the Resumé: In 2011 he ran 31 times for 301 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-13 win over No. 10 Washington.

Realistic Year One Expectations: Get to a bowl game with ease. UCLA might not have bee rocking under Chip Kelly, but it won 25 games over the last three seasons after failing to come up with a winning season for five years. Against a tough Big Ten schedule, just get to seven wins without sweating.

Realistic Expectations Over The Next Five Years: Build UCLA into a bigger football thing. There have been only three ten-win seasons since 1998 as a bit of an afterthought. Give it at least two seasons, but Foster needs to change the culture, the talent level, and the excitement. Going bowling every year - at least - is a must.

What Will Happen? It’ll be a struggle for a little while. Foster is a new head coach at a place that hasn’t exactly embraced the modern era of college athletics - at least when it comes to diving all in on NIL. It’s starting to turn, though, and once that’s unlocked … look out. Give it at least two years before knowing what Foster can really do.