Current:Home > NewsUCLA promotes longtime assistant DeShaun Foster to replace Chip Kelly as football coach -Wealth Empowerment Zone
UCLA promotes longtime assistant DeShaun Foster to replace Chip Kelly as football coach
View
Date:2025-04-14 08:07:20
UCLA has hired longtime assistant and former NFL running back DeShaun Foster to be its next head football coach, Bruins athletic director Martin Jarmond announced Monday.
Foster, 44, played five of his six NFL seasons with the Carolina Panthers but is a California guy at heart. He played high school football in Tustin, California − about a one-hour drive from UCLA − and starred for the Bruins before playing in the NFL. He's since spent 10 of the past 11 seasons on the UCLA football staff in one capacity or another, most recently as the team's running backs coach and associate head coach.
NFL Network reported earlier this month that Foster was on track to join the Las Vegas Raiders' coaching staff. Instead, he'll now lead his alma mater, which he called "a dream come true."
"I always envisioned being a Bruin ever since I was young, and now being the head coach at my alma mater is such a surreal feeling, and I'm grateful for this opportunity," Foster said in a news release. "The foundation of this program will be built on discipline, respect and enthusiasm. These are phenomenal young men, and I'm excited to hit the ground running."
The UCLA job was a late and surprising addition to the college football coaching carousel after head coach Chip Kelly left the post to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State last week. The move raised eyebrows around the sport, as sitting Power Five head coaches rarely leave to take coordinator roles − especially with teams in the same conference. (The Bruins will officially leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in August.)
ESPN reported that UCLA interviewed 11 candidates to replace Kelly, including multiple sitting head coaches. But just three days after Kelly's departure was confirmed, the school decided to stay in-house with Foster, whom Jarmond described in a news release as "a true Bruin."
"While undergoing a comprehensive search for our new head coach, DeShaun resonated from the start and throughout the whole process," Jarmond said. "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."
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
veryGood! (1369)
Related
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- Warming Trends: How Urban Parks Make Every Day Feel Like Christmas, Plus Fire-Proof Ceramic Homes and a Thriller Set in Fracking Country
- Jennifer Lawrence Sets the Record Straight on Liam Hemsworth, Miley Cyrus Cheating Rumors
- New $2 billion Oklahoma theme park announced, and it's not part of the Magic Kingdom
- Small twin
- Can Biden’s Plan to Boost Offshore Wind Spread West?
- 5 things we learned from the Senate hearing on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
- The Bureau of Land Management Lets 1.5 Million Cattle Graze on Federal Land for Almost Nothing, but the Cost to the Climate Could Be High
- Former Danish minister for Greenland discusses Trump's push to acquire island
- Get a Next-Level Clean and Save 58% On This Water Flosser With 4,200+ 5-Star Amazon Reviews
Ranking
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- A Colorado Home Wins the Solar Decathlon, But Still Helps Cook the Planet
- The U.S. Naval Academy Plans a Golf Course on a Nature Preserve. One Maryland Congressman Says Not So Fast
- Shining a Light on Suicide Risk for Wildland Firefighters
- Grammy nominee Teddy Swims on love, growth and embracing change
- The Best Neck Creams Under $26 to Combat Sagging Skin and Tech Neck
- Tornado damages Pfizer plant in North Carolina, will likely lead to long-term shortages of medicine
- TikTok CEO says company is 'not an agent of China or any other country'
Recommendation
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Clowns converge on Orlando for funny business
Blood, oil, and the Osage Nation: The battle over headrights
‘We’re Being Wrapped in Poison’: A Century of Oil and Gas Development Has Devastated the Ponca City Region of Northern Oklahoma
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Investigators looking into whether any of the Gilgo Beach murder victims may have been killed at home suspect shared with his family
We grade Fed Chair Jerome Powell
First Republic Bank shares sink to another record low, but stock markets are calmer