Eight months after he called DeShaun Foster “the right man for this job,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond continued to stand by his man amid a rocky start for the Bruins’ new football coach.
The Bruins are 1-5 for the first time since Chip Kelly’s second season in 2019. Their offense is among the worst in the nation. They haven’t won a home game in three tries and have lost five games in a row.
As one might expect when it comes to the most important hire of his nearly 4½ years on the job, Jarmond is remaining an optimist.
“I’m confident in DeShaun,” Jarmond told The Times on Monday afternoon during a wide-ranging telephone interview. “This is DeShaun’s team, these are his players and he’s working hard every day to make this program successful. Growth isn’t linear, and it’s not always reflected in the record, but the guys are playing hard and we’re getting better and they’re going to keep working hard, and so we’ve got to keep swinging and keep pushing forward.”
Asked about his message to fans unhappy with the team’s record, Jarmond pleaded for patience.
“The student-athletes are not giving up and we can’t give up on them,” Jarmond said. “They deserve our support and they keep fighting and I’m appreciative of our fans supporting our young men.”
Support hasn’t been robust. UCLA is averaging 44,291 fans at the Rose Bowl this season, topping only the 43,848 it averaged in 2019 and the 41,593 it averaged in 2022 to avoid record-low territory since moving to the stadium before the 1982 season.
Jarmond pointed to UCLA’s schedule — the Bruins’ five opponents during their losing streak have a combined 27-4 record — as one reason Foster and his team may be closer to a breakthrough than it appeared heading into a road game against Rutgers on Saturday.
“I think DeShaun has done a good job considering all of the circumstances surrounding this season,” Jarmond said. “With every sport, you always look at it in a totality perspective and playing the toughest schedule in the country with a new conference, a new staff, a lot going on, and the student-athletes have fought hard every game and I think DeShaun is accountable, he’s very self-aware, I talk to him regularly and I like the way that he’s approaching the season and working with our young men each and every week.
“He understands his role as the head coach and leader of this program. He takes ownership for where we need to improve.”
The Bruins (1-5 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) nearly notched their first conference win last weekend before the offense failed to pick up a late first down and the defense failed to make a final stand. Two days later, Foster pinned his team’s 21-17 loss to Minnesota on penalties (a season-high 10 for 105 yards) and turnovers (quarterback Ethan Garbers had three passes intercepted, though one was tipped, a second was on a Hail Mary and a third was on a pass that appeared to hit the ground).
After once again referencing his team’s lack of discipline, just as he had immediately after the game, Foster issued perhaps his first mea culpa of the season when asked how much of that was on the coaches.
“All of it’s on the coaches,” Foster said. “All of it’s on me. So, it wouldn’t be one of my pillars if I didn’t think it was really important. So I just have to continue to reiterate it to the team and have them truly understand what it means. You know, it’s not just a word; it’s more of actions. We have to fix our actions out there on the field and stop getting in our own way.”
Fans on message boards were divided over Foster’s decision to punt on fourth and one from UCLA’s 12-yard-line with 2 minutes 26 seconds left and the Bruins holding a 17-14 lead. Foster mentioned bad field position and the running game’s inability to generate yardage — his team was averaging 2.2 yards per carry to that point — as reasons not to gamble.
When it came to not calling a timeout after stopping Minnesota with 1:44 left in the first half, allowing the Golden Gophers to bleed the clock before punting with 58 seconds to go, Foster said that was a decision that was easy to second-guess with the benefit of hindsight.
“We … did run out of time and had to kick a field goal,” Foster said of Mateen Bhaghani’s 34-yarder on third down that ended the first half. “But there’s nothing saying that if there was more time that we would’ve scored [a touchdown], so I’m not going to play into that [what-if] game. You gotta just make a decision and go with that.”
There’s no debating the need to fix an offense that’s among the worst in major college football. UCLA’s total offense (272.8 yards per game) ranks No. 130 out of 133 teams, its rushing offense (59.5 yards per game) ranks No. 131 and its scoring offense (14.5 points per game) ranks No. 132.
Alluding to his team scoring 17 points in the first half against Louisiana State and 10 points in the first half against Minnesota, Foster said there’s been pockets of productivity that could foreshadow a quantum leap.
“They’re just seeing it in spurts,” Foster said of the offense making plays, “so if we can find a way to truly put a four-quarter game together, then you can really see the potential. But the offense is still trying to operate as a high-powered offense and I have confidence in that — I think the players do too, especially when they’re making plays in certain situations; it’s just not enough plays and it’s just not consistent enough.
“So it’s still new to these guys, it’s still a new offense, but I’m not going to make any excuses, we should be able to run the ball a little bit better and we should be able to protect a little bit better also.”
If nothing else, the man who hired Foster is still firmly backing him with half a season left to play.
“I can see the progress we’re making,” Jarmond said. “I have an appreciation for the work that’s being put in and I think eventually it will pay off. The young men are working hard and the staff is working hard and I think we’re going to keep pushing forward this season.”
