UCLA carried momentum into the 2025 season after it unexpectedly added quarterback Nico Iamaleava through the transfer portal. Second-year coach DeShaun Foster seemingly had the Bruins on the right track after he notched multiple impressive wins in his debut season, too. But after back-to-back losses to open the year, it will take a significant in-season turnaround for UCLA to deliver on its highest expectations.
CBS Sports experts shed light on UCLA’s situation on Sunday’s episode of the “College Football Insiders” show and noted that Foster’s job security has quickly come into question. The Week 2 loss to UNLV, which was hardly as close as the 30-23 score indicates, coupled with a 43-10 rout at the hands of Utah in the season opener raised eyebrows throughout the industry.
“He was paid half as much as Chip Kelly was at UCLA,” Chris Hummer said of Foster. “It’s not a particularly expensive buyout. If things continue to go the wrong direction, that is a job a lot of people in this space are looking at as one that could come open.”
Foster inked a five-year deal with his alma mater when he arrived in 2024 and is scheduled to earn $3.1 million this season. If UCLA fires him on or before Dec. 1, it will owe 70% of his remaining total salary. That buyout drops to 60% if the Bruins move on from Foster after the Dec. 1 mark.
UCLA signed Foster on a relative bargain. He was just the 58th-highest-paid coach among those at public schools in Year 1, according to the USA Today salary database, and the fourth-lowest-paid coach at the Power Four level.
“It always kind of felt like a bridge hire in some ways of ‘Let’s just go cheap.’ But I think it’s dangerous to do that to an alum,” said John Talty. “This is a guy who is very well liked, and he was in part brought in to bring booster back into the mix, bring former players back into the mix. I think he’s done that.
“It obviously hasn’t worked out to the level that they wanted it to so far. But if you dump him after two years or three years, that’s just hard to do to an alum. That’s the dangerous thing about getting back to someone who means a lot to your program. If it doesn’t go well, it kind of ruins the relationship a little bit.”
Foster took the job with no head coaching experience. He had not even been a coordinator at any point in his career and from 2017-23 served as the Bruins’ running backs coach. His ability to construct a winning roster in the Big Ten was always a question mark, and heading into 2025, a couple of holes on the depth chart justified that uncertainty.
“There’s clear deficiencies on that roster along the offensive line and at receiver,” Hummer said. “Nico’s camp even had some of those questions going into the year. Despite the fact that he went to UCLA, there were questions about the offensive line and wide receiver room, and that’s manifested.”
It has been clear through two games that Iamaleava lacks the same caliber of supporting cast that he had around him at Tennessee. While he knowingly picked UCLA as his landing spot, it ultimately fell on Foster to build a roster around him, and the offensive weapons were noticeably subpar when the Bruins totaled just 33 points across their first two games.