UCLA hires Foster

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ComoCraig said:
Worst case scenario If Foster stinks is you buy yourself a couple years to actually search for the new guy, and you have the fact that you gave the golden boy a shot and didn't overpay working in your favor.

Truth be told, I have no idea if Foster will work out. No one does. Regardless, the safe play is to keep the program intact, tread water, figure out if Foster is the guy, and take your time to pivot if he isn't.
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Be careful with the bolded. While "buying time" and "treading water" your program could slip even further.

Case in point: did Nebraska just "buy time" and "tread water" with Scott Frost? No, they sank to an even lower level and the hole is just that much harder for Rhule to get them out of.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
I still don't think that that's many, but it is higher than two, I'll give you that.

I guess I wish @GophersInIowa had explicitly said, "highly unusual...hired...head coach AT THE P5 level". I think that's what most of us thought when reading it - that it's unusual to get a P5 job this way, not ANY HC job.
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Yes, meant at the P5 level.
 

Is this a worse hire than the Brewster hire? Brew only had TE coach experience but he was pretty well known across the board as an awesome recruiter and had a lot of chops in that regard. This one is weird. Hope the dude is successful but yeah, UCLA must have literally no dollars
 

Wasn't this terrible timing to lose and try to replace a coach for UCLA? All the usual churn at the end of the season is pretty much complete and the best guys are off the table. It seems likely their options were limited so they went with continuity to try to minimize transfers (he seems popular with the team) and gave a guy with close ties to the university a chance. If it doesn't work out, they probably let him go well before the end of the season so they have more options next time. This is not a shot at Foster. Sometimes you just need a chance.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Wasn't this terrible timing to lose and try to replace a coach for UCLA? All the usual churn at the end of the season is pretty much complete and the best guys are off the table. It seems likely their options were limited so they went with continuity to try to minimize transfers (he seems popular with the team) and gave a guy with close ties to the university a chance. If it doesn't work out, they probably let him go well before the end of the season so they have more options next time. This is not a shot at Foster. Sometimes you just need a chance.
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If anything UCLA should be a desirable spot. And if you’re hiring now, you got the attention of everyone who is up for the job.

Supposedly Tony White from Nebraska wanted the job.
 



GopherTheJugular said:
Be careful with the bolded. While "buying time" and "treading water" your program could slip even further.

Case in point: did Nebraska just "buy time" and "tread water" with Scott Frost? No, they sank to an even lower level and the hole is just that much harder for Rhule to get them out of.
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They sank long before ☃️ came on the scene.
 
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He has lots of high level coaching experience under experienced coaches, just not as a head coach. He played seven years in the NFL, and has UCLA ties. He is also on the current staff so the players are familiar with him, possibly preventing a huge exodus of players. it’s not like they hired a guy out of D3. I don’t see why hiring him deserves the criticism I’m reading.
 



SeaBee_Gopher said:
Wasn't this terrible timing to lose and try to replace a coach for UCLA? All the usual churn at the end of the season is pretty much complete and the best guys are off the table. It seems likely their options were limited so they went with continuity to try to minimize transfers (he seems popular with the team) and gave a guy with close ties to the university a chance. If it doesn't work out, they probably let him go well before the end of the season so they have more options next time. This is not a shot at Foster. Sometimes you just need a chance.
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UCLA brought this on themselves by very publicly firing him then last minute not firing him. So basically he needed 8-10 wins next year to have a chance to stay. Playing with a bunch of unknowns
Basically told him to leave, so I don’t feel bad for them that he left
 

Doesn't seem like players are eager to transfer out or not support the new hire:

 

I do think it is interesting that he has "only" been the RB coach ... for the last seven straight seasons.

He must be very, very popular there. And hopefully learned a thing or two about how to run the program. Or has some ideas about how things could work.


As for comparables .... I dare say that Syracuse hiring Fran Brown is fairly close to this??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeShaun_Foster
 

Hiring internal and … potentially… avoiding a mass migration is certainly a nice bonus but I gotta think it is a second tier bonus. If you’re hiring a guy his ability to coach and recruit and get the program on track is a bigger deal by far.

If “well maybe not very many will transfer” is the big selling point, that’s pretty short term thinking…
 



"I think given the timing this was a good move for UCLA. Foster is loved by the players and by folks around the program. Foster did a terrific job with his running backs... one of the top assistants in the Pac-12." --From an article by Chris Vannini and Bruce Feldman, The Athletic.


People have made a good case it's not a sweet job for multiple reasons. It sounds like UCLA did well with the choice.
 

SHGopher said:
"I think given the timing this was a good move for UCLA. Foster is loved by the players and by folks around the program. Foster did a terrific job with his running backs... one of the top assistants in the Pac-12." --From an article by Chris Vannini and Bruce Feldman, The Athletic.


People have made a good case it's not a sweet job for multiple reasons. It sounds like UCLA did well with the choice.
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Scott Frost was praised as a great hire too, so was Tom Herman….

PJ outlasted them both.
 

Some guy said:
UCLA brought this on themselves by very publicly firing him then last minute not firing him. So basically he needed 8-10 wins next year to have a chance to stay. Playing with a bunch of unknowns
Basically told him to leave, so I don’t feel bad for them that he left
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I did not recall UCLA having a bad relationship with Chip but it explains the odd jump to OSU.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
I did not recall UCLA having a bad relationship with Chip but it explains the odd jump to OSU.
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I don't think it was that odd. Chip's time at UCLA was in question for the last few years.

And he was 7 and 28 against teams with winning records. Recruiting suffered greatly supposedly due to both academic standards and lots of rumors of .... just not recruiting all that much. They offer fewer players than Standford some years. Their recruiting rankings in have been at best in the 30s, at worst as far back as 61st.

Chip was on his way out eventually one way or another.
 

In the "Transfer Portal Era," part of the battle is preventing a mass exodus, which can take years to recover from (see: Men's Basketball, Minnesota).

Hiring the popular, inexperienced coach helps prevents that.

As usual, the actual success will hinge on the staff that Foster assembles and the administrative and community support. The latter two are quite difficult at UCLA.
 

NateDawgUM said:
In the "Transfer Portal Era," part of the battle is preventing a mass exodus, which can take years to recover from (see: Men's Basketball, Minnesota).

Hiring the popular, inexperienced coach helps prevents that.

As usual, the actual success will hinge on the staff that Foster assembles and the administrative and community support. The latter two are quite difficult at UCLA.
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Rumor has it he doesn't get to do that, at least not yet, he's keeping most everyone willing to stay.

If you're trying to retain players that makes sense, but also saves money, if that really is the whole issue at UCLA right now.
 

UCLA wanted Fleck, they didn't want to pay the buyout and couldn't pay him more. They went with option that would lead to less transfers. My guess is Fleck holding out for shot at Notre Dame job.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Rumor has it he doesn't get to do that, at least not yet, he's keeping most everyone willing to stay.

If you're trying to retain players that makes sense, but also saves money, if that really is the whole issue at UCLA right now.
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If I was a young, up and coming coach, I woudn't want to touch the UC system with a 10 foot pole.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
I did not recall UCLA having a bad relationship with Chip but it explains the odd jump to OSU.
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I don’t know anything about the relationship, but it was literally reported they were going to fire him and then changed their mind. So like, if you’re Kelly, why wouldn’t you move on. You know the next time you’re even slightly below someone’s expectations it’s over. Whoever leaked that they were going to fire him when the final decision wasn’t made yet cost UcLA their coach. Then again, him leaving is a lot lower buyout than them firing him…but the timing is bad IMO to make w coaching change due to portal.
 

NateDawgUM said:
If I was a young, up and coming coach, I woudn't want to touch the UC system with a 10 foot pole.
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Don't only Cal and UCLA have football? All the other UC schools are in the Big West (except the UCSC Banana Slugs, which are D3).
 

disco said:
Don't only Cal and UCLA have football? All the other UC schools are in the Big West (except the UCSC Banana Slugs, which are D3).
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Yes. But extend what I said to include basketball.

Now if I was coaching a women's country club sport, sign me up!
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don't think it was that odd. Chip's time at UCLA was in question for the last few years.

And he was 7 and 28 against teams with winning records. Recruiting suffered greatly supposedly due to both academic standards and lots of rumors of .... just not recruiting all that much. They offer fewer players than Standford some years. Their recruiting rankings in have been at best in the 30s, at worst as far back as 61st.

Chip was on his way out eventually one way or another.
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Hmmm.

He seemed to do pretty well at Oregon.

Different era I know
 

NateDawgUM said:
Yes. But extend what I said to include basketball.

Now if I was coaching a women's country club sport, sign me up!
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The fact that Cal —friggin Berkeley — agreed to take part in this horse manure charade of “joining” the ACC, all for the simple reason of “saving” football, proves you wrong.

Similarly does UCLA tagging along for the ride to the Big Ten with USC.


If it was so weakly supported as you imply at those two places, they’d both just join the Big West and wash their hands of this nonsense.
 

MplsGopher said:
The fact that Cal —friggin Berkeley — agreed to take part in this horse manure charade of “joining” the ACC, all for the simple reason of “saving” football, proves you wrong.

Similarly does UCLA tagging along for the ride to the Big Ten with USC.


If it was so weakly supported as you imply at those two places, they’d both just join the Big West and wash their hands of this nonsense.
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What part of *I* wouldn't touch it if *I* were an up and coming coach do you not understand? You're more than welcome to have a different opinion. I know you don't agree with anything I say at all.

Are you just following from me board to board to argue with everything I f'ing say?

Time for my next 3 month GopherHole sabbatical. Thanks for reminding me that this cesspool is an absolute waste of my precious time.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Wasn't this terrible timing to lose and try to replace a coach for UCLA? All the usual churn at the end of the season is pretty much complete and the best guys are off the table. It seems likely their options were limited so they went with continuity to try to minimize transfers (he seems popular with the team) and gave a guy with close ties to the university a chance. If it doesn't work out, they probably let him go well before the end of the season so they have more options next time. This is not a shot at Foster. Sometimes you just need a chance.
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Yes. This is a textbook high risk high reward scenario. I hope it works for him. He may never such an opportunity like this again.
 


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