UCLA Football: Bill Plaschke Weighs In On Risky DeShaun Foster Hire
On Monday, the UCLA Bruins announced their new head coach, DeShaun Foster. The Bruins moved fast and furiously to hire a new coach after the sudden departure of Chip Kelly, a whole weekend to be exact.
Fans, alumni, and players seem to be ecstatic about the move. However, long-time L.A. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke doesn't believe the hype around this hiring.
In his latest column, Plaschke didn't mince any words when discussing the Foster hire.
He just hired a head coach who is not a head coach.
He just entrusted the Bruins to a guy who has never called a play, never run a practice, never commanded the sidelines, never dominated a meeting room and never bossed more than a handful of players at one time.
Now, that part of Plaschke's piece is hard to argue. Foster does not have the experience on paper, per se, to be the head coach of any program, truthfully speaking. However, neither have many other successful head coaches at the college or pro level before they became household names.
One thing he does have under his belt is experience. After retiring from the NFL in 2008, Foster began coaching in 2013 at UCLA. He was a student assistant for one season and then a graduate assistant from 2014 to 2015.
He left Westwood for one season in 2016 for Texas Tech to become the running back coach. Then he returned home in 2017 to be the running backs coach for the next six seasons, and now he's been handed the keys to the house, car, vacation home, and everything in between.
Although he may lack the experience on paper, the program and players seem confident Foster could make this work. Plaschke could be correct, and this could be another epic failure for the program. But if he's wrong, the Bruins could have themselves one heck of a coach who leads them to new heights and, more importantly, has the player's trust.
Nothing is a given. Foster will have to earn it every Saturday.
