Examining why UCLA's hiring of DeShaun Foster creates flexibility for Bruins

The UCLA Bruins were in a bad position when head coach Chip Kelly made the decision to leave to be the Ohio State offensive coordinator in February. Amid that, the Bruins quickly hired long time assistant and former player DeShaun Foster to be the team’s next head coach.

It was an interesting move that Andy Staples broke down on Andy Staples On3, where he made an interesting comparison to the situation at Mississippi State last season.

“The DeShaun Foster hire, it definitely feels like they have sort of said, ‘Let’s see what happens with this,'” Andy Staples said. “Again, we need to see details of the contract, the finer details of the contract, but I suspect it will look somewhat similar to Zach Arnett‘s contract at Mississippi State. Maybe not as lopsided toward the school as that Zach Arnett contract was, which basically allowed them to get out of it in year one, and if he’d gotten a high paying coordinator job, the buyout would’ve been basically free.”

Zach Arnett was hired by Mississippi State in the wake of Mike Leach‘s death. Just 10 games into his first season, the school decided to move on from him amid the team struggling to transition into a new era.

Andy Staples pointed out that things had gotten awkward between UCLA and Chip Kelly too. In particular, the school wanted to move on from Kelly but couldn’t raise the money to pay his buyout. Now, with another team poaching him, UCLA actually makes some money.

“So, this one, UCLA ends up making some money off Chip Kelly leaving. Now, I don’t know if Martin Jarmond wanted to chase Chip Kelly. I think at some point they wanted to fire Chip Kelly. That was not feasible because someone said, ‘No. We’re not paying this money,’ but that sent the message that got Chip out of there. So, I think they ultimately got what they wanted in terms of not having Chip Kelly in charge anymore.”

The deal with DeShaun Foster, as Andy Staples explained, will likely offer UCLA flexibility that it likely needs while moving into the Big Ten, where Chip Kelly likely wasn’t a fit due to how he recruits.

“Now they have some flexibility because, at this point, I don’t know who the ideal candidate would have been for UCLA. This way, they get to figure out what to do now and if DeShaun Foster happens to be awesome, you just pay him and you keep him. That’s really what it is. But, obviously, this is not what UCLA fans want to hear because they thought when they got Chip Kelly, ‘Okay, this will steady things. It’s going to be stable. He’s going to be food for a long time. We’ve got our guy.’ It didn’t work out that way,” Staples said.

“I hope DeShaun Foster kills it there. I don’t like it when people get hired and the first thought is they just hired him to fire him, I hope that’s not the case. I hope he’s awesome because you never know in this situation… let’s give this guy a little time. See what he can do.”

DeShaun Foster explains recruiting pitch for UCLA

One of the biggest responsibilities that DeShaun Foster is going to have as he becomes the head coach at UCLA is finding a way to pitch recruits on the program. As he explained, he has great relationships and UCLA benefits from the scope of its brand.

“For recruits, most of the running back recruits out of the nation know how I am. But just for people outside of that, this is a family atmosphere, you know. You’re gonna get developed to be a professional. Josh Kelly’s here, right there. That’s somebody that I developed. He’s a great back; I was able to develop him [and] he’s in the NFL. So, that’s our thing. I tell my players, Meek Mill [said] they’re chasing dreams; we’re catching them. We’re dream catchers. That’s what we’re doing,” Foster said.

“At this point of my career, I know a lot of high school coaches. I either played against them [or] maybe coach somebody that they know. So there’s a lot of relationships that I have. But we’re taking this nationally. This isn’t just a local California LA thing. Our brand is national; we don’t have to downplay it to just being West Coast. Some of our Hall of Famers aren’t even from California Big O [Jonathan Ogden], Kenny Easley, [and] Troy Aikman, so this isn’t about just recruiting California kids. We’re most definitely gonna take care of our backyard. But this is going to be a national recruiting thing. And my boys are ready to hit the ground running, and I am too.”