Bruins' New OC Has Deep-Rooted Connection With Coach Foster

The UCLA Bruins recently hired their new offensive coordinator, Tino Sunseri, who will come over from the Indiana Hoosiers. The hire was no random selection, as Coach DeShaun Foster and Sunseri have a long-standing connection.

Indiana University Quarterbacks Coach Tino Sunseri instucts players during fall practice at the Mellencamp Pavilion at Indiana University on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

The UCLA Bruins recently hired their new offensive coordinator, Tino Sunseri, from the Indiana Hoosiers, with whom he spent the past season as their co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He will finish his duties with the Hoosiers until their postseason ends.

This was a hire that came with a long-standing relationship between Sunseri and Coach DeShaun Foster, as the two have known each other for years. This seemed like a no-brainer type of selection for a Bruins offense that seeks to improve in a short amount of time.

Sunseri was in Westwood earlier this week and was able to introduce himself to the team and get his first feeling of what the Bruins culture is at the moment. Sunseri mentioned the direct connect that he has with Foster that spans back to the early 2000s when the pair were once in the same NFL building.

"I can't tell you how excited I am to be here and how much respect I have for coach [DeShaun] Foster," Sunseri said. "The coolest thing about this is that me and Coach Foster's relationship goes back to the time where my dad [Sal Sunseri] was coaching the Carolina Panthers, and I wanted to be in the building as much as I possibly could because the only thing I've ever known my whole life is ball. The only thing I've ever wanted was essentially a locker room, to be able to create a culture, a feeling of being able to have a family outside of my immediate family."

When Sunseri was still in junior high, his father and long-time NFL coach, Sal Sunseri, was the defensive line coach with the Panthers from 2002 to 2008. That just so happened to be the exact same time that Foster was a running back with the Panthers from 2002 to 2007.

With Tino in the building every day soaking up an NFL atmosphere, Foster and him were able to reconnect that relationship. Foster was very aware of what type of football family the younger Sunseri was coming from as he learned from his father for years in the NFL.

There may not have been a better hire for the Bruins staff than Sunseri due to his extensive history of being in an NFL locker room, understanding what it means to build a team culture and using that to win ballgames. Sunseri is going to help reload this offense and give them a new look in the coming years.

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