Pete Thamel explains how UCLA landed on hiring DeShaun Foster

UCLA decided to hire from within their program following the surprising departure of head coach Chip Kelly within the conference to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. With the Bruins hiring former star running back and the team’s running backs coach for the past seven seasons DeShaun Foster as their next head coach on Monday.

Foster is beloved within the UCLA program, which was made evident through his team’s reaction to the news. But ESPN’s Pete Thamel recently discussed with Rece Davis what really went being the Bruins’ decision to make Foster their next face of the program.

“I think at that stage in the cycle, and if you looked at the last few coaching searches there, there wasn’t a hot Group of Five guy. There wasn’t a logical guy, there wasn’t an alum in the NFL, there wasn’t a Bill O’Brien who’s from there and wanted to come home,” Thamel explained. “It just wasn’t a place where they were going to be able to go grab a high-profile guy. They kicked the tires on PJ Fleck, they did a couple other things, and I really think Rece you hire opposites right?”

Foster and Kelly are different in a lot of ways, with UCLA representing the fourth head coaching job of Kelly’s career between the NFL and college levels. Regarded as one of the game’s best offensive minds and play callers across the entire football landscape.

But for what Foster doesn’t bring in head coaching or play calling experience (with UCLA being his first head coaching job), he brings other valuable assets to the table that Kelly necessarily didn’t during his six-year tenure in Los Angeles.

“Chip was not an elite recruiter at UCLA, he did a great job in the portal, but that wasn’t where or how he spent his energy. So DeShaun Foster with the four backs that got drafted four years in a row, he recruited and developed all those guys. He’s well known in LA, he’s well known in Orange County, he’s well known at UCLA. He’s one of the great players in school history,” Thamel said.

“So there’s a little bit of the Dabo [Swinney] model, okay go be a leader. He comes from a family of military background, discipline, go be the face of the program, have a Bruin in charge.”

Foster is in the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, ranking fifth all-time in rushing yards and second in rushing touchdowns in program history. Also playing a crucial role in the Bruins’ success at the running back position and the run game at large as the team’s led the Pac-12 in rushing the past two seasons.

But the program will be looking for him to build on that success and take the program to another level as they enter the Big Ten Conference this upcoming football season.

“Look there’s a lot of untapped potential for UCLA in terms of NIL, in terms of their alumni, in terms of their fan base,” Thamel said. “Go forge an image for us in this new era. It is a bit of an unconventional hire because there are a handful of guys who’ve never called plays who end up getting head coaching jobs. Fleck is one of them, Urban Meyer is one of them, Dabo’s one of them, but you don’t see it that often and the vision was cast to me as I stated.”

“Okay we’re gonna go to the Big Ten, we’re gonna be different than USC. They’re all offense under Lincoln [Riley], throw it around. You can see UCLA sort of being energized a little bit around being smash mouth, and running the ball, and forging that identity pushing forward.”

More and more college football head coaches seem to be stepping away from play calling and focusing on the new responsibilities that have been placed on head coaches in this new era of the sport. And if DeShaun Foster can excel in that role while also establishing a new identity for the UCLA program in a new conference, the sky is the limit for the future of the Bruins.