Ira’s Intuition: Coach DeShaun Foster is rebuilding UCLA football. USC will test his success.

(Helen Sanders/Daily Bruin)

By Ira Gorawara
Nov. 21, 2024 7:28 p.m.
This post was updated Nov. 22 at 12:35 a.m.
DeShaun Foster is the wrong man for the job, they scoffed.
He’s just a running backs coach who knows nothing about leading a program, they argued.
He’ll never fix a team left in tatters, they predicted.
Three games into UCLA football’s 2024 season, Foster’s margin for error as a first-time head coach had already shrunk. But truth be told, there was never much leeway to begin with.
Because, of course, he was supposed to have a magic wand to turn UCLA into a national juggernaut overnight.
Foster is a whisper in a world of shouts – he’s soft-spoken, understated and unfazed, and he even has a habit of repeating outfits. I may not always be able to hear what he’s saying into the microphone at press conferences, but what I’ve learned is that he doesn’t need a megaphone to make a statement.
And it’s the quiet foundation that has been the Bruins’ backbone in 2024.
As a storm of criticism swirled, Foster remained poised in the eye of it. He stuck to what he knew – remaining quiet, calm and seemingly undisturbed. And it was amid the volume that he pieced together a newfound culture – one too solid to crack.
Flashy? Far from it. Instant success? Hardly. Let the facts be facts: UCLA trudged through six winless weeks in the first half of its season, and it took till Nov. 8 – Week 11 of the college football schedule – to give the Bruin faithful a home victory.
Numbers can depict a story, but never do they write a novel. They miss the bigger picture – failing to capture the makings of a foundation built to last.
People forget what Foster walked into: a program adrift, lost in search of itself. The Bruins were reeling from a season stained by mediocrity, marred by inconsistency and completely devoid of identity. Yet Foster, in his very first year, has done what eludes coaches for years.
He has rebuilt the soul of this Bruin program and laid the foundation of a culture that can endure.
Built on his pillars of discipline, respect and enthusiasm, Foster has cracked the code in Westwood. He ingrained values of resilience and accountability in a team that desperately needed it – and in a way that flipped a fractured locker room into a tight-knit unit.
I have yet to hear Foster, his coaches or players deflect blame or point fingers. What I have seen, though, is a UCLA team glimmering with grit and cheer – bringing the same fire to Spaulding Field, whether it’s rebounding from a crushing defeat or riding high from victory.
The hard part is done. But as much as I’ve sung the praises of culture, it’s not enough to clinch the high-stakes game. The cultural groundwork Foster assembled is undeniable, but the technical side of coaching – the game management, adjustments and play-calling – is still a work in progress.
And that progress is now under scrutiny more than ever after UCLA’s deflating 31-19 loss to Washington last Friday. The Bruins’ performance didn’t appear to come from a team that learned from early-season shakeups and missteps.
Culture isn’t solely about effort – it’s also about response to adversity. For Foster, that means converting the strides he’s made in Westwood into meaningful wins, especially when pressure’s at its peak.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher Saturday.
The 2024 Battle for Los Angeles isn’t merely about pride or bowl eligibility – for Foster, it’s a chance to cement his status as UCLA’s leader for the long haul, proving he can blend culture with real football chops.
A loss, on the other hand, would make it harder to overlook the shortcomings that beamed against Washington.
Foster’s challenge isn’t exclusive to UCLA – many first-year head honchos juggle the battle of implementing their vision while navigating the technical nuances of gameday decision-making.
What gives Foster leverage, though, is that he’s checked off the intangible: trust. In an era where locker rooms can unravel at the first sign of adversity, that’s a rarity to find at the helm.
The cold, hard truth is that football is a results-driven business. Fans, alumni and boosters ultimately measure success in wins and losses. Beating USC wouldn’t just give UCLA a marquee victory; it would signal that Foster is capable of backing up his leadership with the kind of results that matter most.
Culture might eat strategy for breakfast, but the greatest serve both. And Saturday’s rivalry game might be the perfect time for Foster to show he’s cooking in Westwood.