Tag: Deshaun Foster

UCLA players, personnel react after DeShaun Foster becomes head coach

Current players, recruits, and UCLA personnel were thrilled with the DeShaun Foster hire.

The UCLA Bruins named DeShaun Foster as the new head coach for the football program after a brief search.

It is clear that Martin Jarmond wanted somebody who embodied UCLA football, and they did just that with this hire.

Perhaps the biggest reason for fans and players wanting Foster was to keep everybody in town for another season. After he was named head coach, the players and alumni were more than thrilled with this decision.

Current players and incoming recruits expressed their excitement, as did a lot of other UCLA personnel following the hire of DeShaun Foster as the replacement for Chip Kelly.

Social media reacts to UCLA players celebrating DeShaun Foster as new head coach

The moment DeShaun Foster was introduced to the team was too good. The reactions were even better.

A video of DeShaun Foster’s introduction as new head coach to the UCLA players has social media buzzing.

Foster, the former running backs coach for the Bruins, was introduced to the players formally. After a brief departure from the program, the Bruins brought Foster back, this time in a much bigger capacity as he became the 19th head coach in the history of UCLA football.

And the UCLA players are not the only ones excited to see Foster back and leading the program, as his return has been met with general excitement.

Here are the best reactions to the moment Foster was introduced to his players.

UCLA names former Bruin standout DeShaun Foster as head coach

The UCLA Bruins have found their next head coach in former Bruin standout Deshaun Foster.

After interviewing a handful of candidates, the UCLA Bruins have found their next head coach. Former Bruin standout and NFL running back DeShaun Foster will lead the Bruins into the Big Ten era, replacing Chip Kelly who left the program on Friday to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

The 44-year old Foster placed for UCLA between 1998 and 2002 before being a second-round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2002 NFL Draft. He would spend seven seasons in the NFL with the Panthers and San Francisco 49ers. During his seven year career, he totaled 927 carries for 3,570 yards and 11 touchdowns as well as 142 receptions for 1,129 yards and five touchdowns.

The California native began his coaching career in 2013 as a student assistant with UCLA before being promoted to graduate assistant in 2014. In 2016, he spent one season at Texas Tech as the Red Raiders’ running backs coach before returning to Los Angeles a year later to take the same job with the Bruins which he held through this past season.

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UCLA does not hire Clay Helton or Alex Grinch as its new head football coach

Darn.

Clay Helton and Alex Grinch both had coaching experience in the Pac-12. They both knew the Los Angeles recruiting scene and had established local connections. They were both part of coaching staffs which won New Year’s Six bowl games. Clay Helton won the 2017 Rose Bowl at USC. Alex Grinch won the 2019 Rose Bowl at Ohio State and the 2020 Cotton Bowl at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley. Both Clay Helton and Alex Grinch won conference championships. Helton won the 2017 Pac-12 title at USC, while Grinch won multiple Big 12 titles with Riley at Oklahoma. Both men could have been amazingly great fits for the UCLA football program after Chip Kelly went to Ohio State, but the Bruins instead chose DeShaun Foster, an alumnus and a longtime assistant at the school.

UCLA Wire is covering this story. Let’s talk a little more about it:

Social media reactions to DeShaun Foster being named UCLA head coach

UCLA hiring DeShaun Foster as the new head coach brought a lot of reactions on social media.

The UCLA Bruins have officially named DeShaun Foster as the new head coach to replace Chip Kelly. It was finalized on Monday morning, and Foster will have a press conference on Tuesday.

After spending the past seven seasons as an assistant with UCLA, Foster took the RBs coach job with the Las Vegas Raiders at the start of February.

However, once Kelly left for the Ohio State OC job, Foster’s name immediately stood out among fans and players, and things got done.

The Foster-UCLA coaching rumors circulated more when he threw out the first pitch at the Bruins softball game on Sunday.

The hire of Foster brought about a lot of mixed reactions, but here is how social media reacted to the news.

UCLA fills head coach vacancy

Big Ten coaching news:

UCLA is hiring running backs coach Deshaun Foster to be the school’s next head coach, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The school’s head coach job became vacant when Chip Kelly left to take the offensive coordinator position at Ohio State. The coaching carousel musical chairs are complicated. Kelly took Bill O’Brien’s position at Ohio State, which he held for three weeks before leaving for the Boston College vacancy. That vacancy at BC was open because former head coach Jeff Hafley took the defensive coordinator job with the Green Bay Packers.

Related: Win totals released for Wisconsin, every Big Ten team in 2024 football season

The chain of events are complicated, but they’ve led to Foster getting the UCLA job.

Foster was a second-round pick out of UCLA in the 2002 NFL draft. He played in the league for seven years, six with the Carolina Panthers (2002-2007) and one with the San Francisco 49ers (2008).

Related: Social media roasted a Wisconsin legend during the Super Bowl broadcast

The young coach began his coaching career at UCLA as a graduate assistant in 2014. He spent 2016 as running backs coach at Texas Tech before returning to UCLA, where he has been the running backs coach since 2017.

Kelly, meanwhile, was on thin ice throughout last season and had been seeking NFL coordinator jobs for weeks. His move to Ohio State shouldn’t have surprised anybody.

The Bruins will rely on Foster, someone with zero head coaching experience, to guide the program into the new era of the Big Ten.

Former Panthers RB DeShaun Foster hired as UCLA head football coach

After a 10-day stint as the Raiders RB coach, former Panther DeShaun Foster has returned to the collegiate ranks to lead his alma mater.

DeShaun Foster’s first stint as an NFL coach lasted just 10 days.

As reported by ESPN college football senior writer Pete Thamel on Monday, the former Carolina Panthers rusher has now been named the new head football coach for the University of Los Angeles, California. Foster had been hired by the Las Vegas Raiders as their running backs coach on Feb. 2.

UCLA has been a home for the Charlotte, N.C. native since 1998, when he began his collegiate career as a Bruin. His four-year stay yielded 3,049 rushing yards, 43 total touchdowns and a 2001 second-team All-American nod.

After a six-year run in the NFL, with five of those coming in Carolina, Foster embarked on a coaching career with his alma mater beginning as student assistant in 2013. He’d go on to serve as a graduate assistant in 2014 and 2015, take a one-year hiatus to Texas Tech University as a running backs coach in 2016 and then return to Los Angeles for the same position from 2017 to 2023.

Foster will now fill the vacancy left behind by Chip Kelly, who jumped over to Ohio State University as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

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Who is DeShaun Foster, the former UCLA running back just hired as the head coach of the Bruins?

DeShaun Foster played seven years in the NFL and is a longtime assistant coach.

After former head coach Chip Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, the Bruins have already found his replacement.

The athletic department has hired DeShaun Foster, a former UCLA running back who attended the university between 1998 and 2001. He was selected in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft and played in the pros until 2008.

Here is more from UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond:

“While undergoing a comprehensive search for our new head coach, DeShaun resonated from the start and throughout the whole process,” said Jarmond. “We are looking for a coach with integrity, energy and passion; someone who is a great teacher, who develops young men, is a great recruiter and fully embraces the NIL landscape to help our student-athletes. DeShaun checks all of those boxes and then some. He is a leader of men and a true Bruin. I am excited to partner with him as we usher UCLA Football into an exciting new era.”

After playing for the Carolina Panthers and briefly the San Francisco 49ers, Foster eventually found his way into coaching. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at UCLA in 2013 and he then became a graduate assistant the following year. He served as the director of player development and high school relations in 2015.

Foster briefly left UCLA for Texas Tech (where he was the running backs coach in 2016) before he was offered the same position with the Bruins a year later in 2017.

He remained with the program (becoming associate head coach of the team under Kelly last season) until he briefly accepted a position as running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Even though the former UCLA star had just left the school for the NFL, we recently mentioned Foster as a potential candidate to replace Kelly. He was able to separate himself from a pool of 11 other candidates, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Foster was the “overwhelming choice of the current players” as the top pick to replace Kelly, according to Thamel.

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BREAKING: UCLA hires DeShaun Foster as head coach

UCLA hiring DeShaun Foster as the new head coach.

The UCLA Bruins coaching search is over it seems. On Monday, it was reported that DeShaun Foster is set to become the new head coach for UCLA after Chip Kely left for Ohio State, per Pete Thamel of ESPN.

As soon as the Kelly news surfaced, fans and players immediately were calling for Martin Jarmond to make Foster the head coach. After spending years as an assistant with UCLA, Foster left for a job with the Las Vegas Raiders at the beginning of February.

Rumors intensified on Sunday as Foster threw out the first pitch at a UCLA softball game, and now he is set to become the head coach.

As Thamel notes, UCLA interviewed 11 different candidates but feels Foster can help keep the roster intact and bode well with the fan base and other recruits.

He has worked with Kliff Kingsbury, Jim Mora, Chip Kelly and played in a Super Bowl with John Fox during his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers.

It was a short turnaround, but UCLA has its new head coach.

UCLA coaching search: Candidates narrow following Chip Kelly’s exit

The UCLA coaching search appears to be narrowing down a bit.

The UCLA Bruins football program has endured a rough weekend. On Friday, Chip Kelly left Westwood to become the new OC at Ohio State.

A flurry of names circulated over the weekend, and those such as P.J. Fleck, and Brent Brennan are essentially out of the race.

Names such as Tony White and DeShaun Foster have been popular ones for UCLA fans, and Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times gave his latest intel on the situation (subscription required):

Among those UCLA is believed to have had contact with who remain possible candidates are Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White, Las Vegas Raiders running backs coach DeShaun Foster and Stanford coach Troy Taylor.

Bolch also mentions Chris Horton, whom Maurice Jones-Drew advocated for, and Cleveland Browns assistant Tommy Rees.

It’s a wide net for Martin Jarmond, and he revealed it would be done hopefully within 96 hours, so the clock is ticking to get a new head coach in place.

Foster and White are fan favorites, so either would be a good hire for the fan base and the players. Taylor is a bit of an interesting inclusion, but his success at Sacramento State is at least worth a phone call.

Either way, there should be some final decision coming soon.