Remember how DeShaun Foster’s UCLA tenure began? Not talking about the rushed hiring, but how Foster froze at his first Big Ten media day. He downplayed the moment afterward, and supporters shrugged, insisting he was there to revive the program after Kelly’s 35-34 run, not public speaking, as if a coach’s ability to drive home a message isn’t a key to success. Yet, he was popular for his mantra throughout his time in Westwood: “D.R.E.”, i.e., discipline, respect, enthusiasm, all until the same mantra started getting attributed to the loss and ultimately, his firing.

Foster sold the dream hard. In a May 2024 episode of the NewsUnfiltered podcast, he emphasized, “So the discipline, respect and enthusiasm, those are my three pillars. You know, we’re going to be a disciplined team.” The disconnect between Foster’s vision and the on-field reality has become clearer in recent weeks. But it was something even former players and their families noticed.

Only recently, a parent of a former UCLA player told Bruins insider Ira Gorawara, as she shared the quote on X: “You’ve got to enforce it, and if people aren’t following your creed and they’re not living it and respecting it, then there needs to be consequences. And that was the issue. … If you can’t practice what you preach, and you can’t control the players to have that DRE culture, then it’s all talk and no walk.”  UCLA hasn’t started 0-3 since 2019. Most recently, this commitment to discipline was starkly contradicted during UCLA’s 35–10 loss to New Mexico, where the Bruins shot themselves in the foot with 13 penalties for 116 yards, turning what should have been a comfortable win over the underdogs into a frustrating blowout. And this wasn’t a one-off either. 

Just a week earlier, they’d been flagged 14 times in a loss to UNLV. The penalties had been piling up, and Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times summed up perfectly: “They lack discipline, they can’t tackle, they can’t score, and their coach sounds as if he has no idea how to extract them.” True to Hernandez’s words, after the game, Foster sighed and said, “It blows my mind,” about the team’s execution. Coach, it blew ours, too. 

In the 15 games under Foster’s rule, UCLA could only average 16.5 points per game, 118th nationally. The regression from Year 1 to Year 2 under Foster has been stark. This was a program that, just a season ago, had built some genuine momentum. UCLA rattled off three straight Big Ten wins in the back half of 2024, two of them against upper-half conference opponents, and looked as though it had finally turned a corner with a coach on his “dream job”. 

Foster, a UCLA alumnus, had played four years as their running back before his NFL career and has been on the coaching staff since 2013, save for the one season he spent at Texas Tech. But now, “I regret putting DeShaun in that situation where we were going into the Big Ten,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. “Getting a start so late really, really disadvantaged his beginning to his coaching career here.” Even then, with discipline and execution faltering, many UCLA players doubled down on respect for DeShaun Foster.

Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, after the 35-10 loss to New Mexico, was blunt: “I totally believe in Coach Foster. He gives me so much belief to get in the building and go to work. He gives me that ‘want’ to go out there and practice, and practice hard.” He added that while coaches had put the players in good positions, the failure was on the players’ not executing. Right tackle Reuben Unije also spoke up after Foster’s firing: “As a player this (our record) is on us … the coaches can only do so much we have to make the plays … [Foster] has done nothing but try and put us in the right position to make plays on and off the field! I’ll ride with him any day!!” But respect doesn’t just mean loyalty: it also means standards being upheld.

Foster brought in Iamaleava as a high-profile transfer from Tennessee; many expected the offense to revitalize. But by week 3, Iamaleava was 22-for-34 passing with 217 yards, one touchdown, but also an interception, missed open receivers, and had to scramble multiple times. The offense is averaging about 14 points per game, placing them near the bottom nationally in scoring. The team could not sustain drives or momentum; penalties kept cropping up. Players spoke of treating games like jobs; so much so for “enthusiasm.” 

Recruiting was the lone bright spot for UCLA until it wasn’t. Within 24 hours of Foster’s release, the program lost 7 commits from the 2026 class. Oddsmakers are so low on UCLA that some projections have them finishing 0-12. But Jarmond’s coaching search is already sparking names: from alum Tony White to D’Anton Lynn, Clark Lea, Jason Eck, Kalani Sitake, Will Stein, and Matt Entz. The question is whether the next leader can turn those mantras into reality.