This post was updated Sept. 25 at 12:17 a.m.

DeShaun Foster was fired Sunday morning after leading UCLA football to an 0-3 start to the 2025 season – the Bruins’ worst since 2019.

After just 15 games as head coach of UCLA football, Foster will leave his alma mater with a 5-10 career record. The Bruins have been outscored 108-43, conceding 1,293 offensive yards and committing 30 penalties, through three games this season.

Foster’s firing came during UCLA’s bye week, with the team’s next game set for Sept. 27 against Northwestern at Martin Stadium. 

The program announced that special assistant to the head football coach Tim Skipper will serve as the interim coach while the program searches for a new head honcho. Skipper has a 7-7 career head coaching record. UCLA also announced that the program’s search for a new head coach will begin immediately and will be supported by “a committee composed of accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats.”

“I want to extend my sincere appreciation to DeShaun for his contributions to UCLA Football over the course of many years, first as a Hall of Fame student-athlete, then as an assistant coach and finally as head coach,” said UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond in a statement. “He was named to this role at a challenging time of year, on the cusp of a move to a new conference, and he embraced it, putting his heart into moving the program forward. His legacy and love for this university are firmly established. He is a Bruin for life, and we wish him, his wife, Charity, and their family the best.”

Foster told the media Friday night that he was still suited to helm the program and that he had yet to feel overmatched on the sideline prior to his departure.

“Most definitely, because I can get these boys to play,” Foster said.

Foster’s comments came after a 35-10 loss to New Mexico, a team UCLA reportedly paid $1.2 million to come play at the Rose Bowl. The loss gave the Lobos – a program that has not eclipsed a .500 winning percentage since 2016 – their first-ever victory against a Big Ten opponent and first against a power conference team since 2008.

After the affair, Foster added that it was UCLA’s lowest point throughout his 15-year stint in Westwood.

“Yeah, it is pretty low right now. I have been around this program for a long time, and it’s just unfortunate what is going on at this moment, just not executing,” Foster said.

Foster was hired in February 2024, just three days after former Bruin head coach Chip Kelly left the program to take the offensive coordinator position at Ohio State.

UCLA ultimately chose Foster, who had no prior head coaching or coordinator experience, to replace Kelly despite interviewing 10 other coaching candidates.

When Jarmond hired Foster, he said the former running back met and exceeded all of the criteria he wanted from a Bruin coach.

“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,” Jarmond said in a statement at the time. “DeShaun checks all of those boxes and then some.” 

But just over a year and a half later, it is evident that Foster did not check the necessary boxes to keep his coaching role.

Foster was the longest-tenured coach on the staff at the time of his hiring, having served as the UCLA running backs coach from 2017-2023. The 2022 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inductee had long-standing Bruin ties, touted as one of the Bruins’ most prolific offensive weapons.

The Second Team All-American finished his UCLA playing career ranked second on UCLA’s all-time touchdowns scored list and third on the program’s all-time rushing yards list.

But Foster’s playing career seemingly looked nothing like his coaching career.

The Bruins have not won a conference championship since 1998 and have won just one bowl game since 2015 – a 35-22 victory against Boise State in the 2023 LA Bowl. The Bruins are the conference’s only team that remains winless.

Skipper will be the program’s third head coach across a three-year span.