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UCLA Football: DeShaun Foster Gets Candid About NIL, Transfer Portal

How the Bruins' first-year head coach feels about the biggest issues in college athletics.

Ricardo Sandoval

Feb 13, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; DeShaun Foster answers questions from media after he was
Feb 13, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; DeShaun Foster answers questions from media after he was / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

It's officially a new era for the UCLA Bruins. The Bruins will enter a new conference with a new head coach, DeShaun Foster. While Foster may not have been a slam-dunk hire that rocks the college football world, people within the program loved this hire. He's a Bruin through and through, and more importantly, he understands the landscape of college football. With the introduction of the NIL and transfer portal, it's a new era of college football. Nobody understands it better than Foster; he isn't ashamed to admit it.

In a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Foster discussed how he was meant to be a head coach in this era of college football.

"I'm lucky because I'm becoming a head coach when this is it," Foster said. "I wasn't a head coach when it wasn't. I was a position coach at the time, but being a head coach in this, this is my first go around, and this is how college football is operating, so I'm all for it."

The 44-year-old head coach revealed what it takes to attract the top recruits and how he approaches this new era.

Foster is the right guy for the Bruins. He not only knows what it means to be a Bruin, but he thrives on recruiting. Over the last decade, the Bruins have been at the bottom regarding recruiting classes. The highest they've been ranked was 12, which was in 2015 with former Bruin head coach Jim Mora. However, since then, it's jumped from 13 to 20, 19, 40, 33, 32, 61, 37, and 90 in 2024 with Chip Kelly.

Although the Bruins have lost many players due to the transfer portal, Foster is relying on his current players and other transfers to make it work and take UCLA to new heights.

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Ricardo Sandoval

RICARDO SANDOVAL