After former head coach Chip Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, the Bruins have already found his replacement.
The athletic department has hired DeShaun Foster, a former UCLA running back who attended the university between 1998 and 2001. He was selected in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft and played in the pros until 2008.
Here is more from UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond:
“While undergoing a comprehensive search for our new head coach, DeShaun resonated from the start and throughout the whole process,” said Jarmond. “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. DeShaun checks all of those boxes and then some. He is a leader of men and a true Bruin. I am excited to partner with him as we usher UCLA Football into an exciting new era.”
After playing for the Carolina Panthers and briefly the San Francisco 49ers, Foster eventually found his way into coaching. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at UCLA in 2013 and he then became a graduate assistant the following year. He served as the director of player development and high school relations in 2015.
Foster briefly left UCLA for Texas Tech (where he was the running backs coach in 2016) before he was offered the same position with the Bruins a year later in 2017.
He remained with the program (becoming associate head coach of the team under Kelly last season) until he briefly accepted a position as running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Even though the former UCLA star had just left the school for the NFL, we recently mentioned Foster as a potential candidate to replace Kelly. He was able to separate himself from a pool of 11 other candidates, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Foster was the “overwhelming choice of the current players” as the top pick to replace Kelly, according to Thamel.
