Monday, September 15, 2025

DeShawn Foster Fired as Head Football Coach at UCLA

Yesterday, head coach DeShawn Foster was fired as the UCLA Bruins head football coach after a 0-3 start to the regular season.  Foster finishes at 5-10 overall during his 1.25 season tenure at the helm of the program.  Here is a look at the UCLA Bruins football program since 2008 (the first year that in which I have data for the model).  This time period only covers the last three seasons of head football coach Rick Neuheisel (2008-2011),  Jim Mora (2012-2017) and Chip Kelly (2018-2024).  After the figure below is a more detailed look at the UCLA Bruins football program during head coach Foster's tenure based on the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model using data provided by www.cfbstats.com.  (The vertical school color bars represent seasons where head coaches changed).

DeShawn Foster (2024-2025)

2024
Head coach Foster's first season finished at 5-7.  The Bruins played against a “much tougher” strength of schedule (SOS), meaning that the Bruins SOS was more than two standard deviations lower than the average SOS for the "league".  UCLA's best win was against #32 ranked Iowa (20-17) and their worst loss was again to #62 ranked LSU by a score of (17-34).  UCLA was the #108 ranked team overall, with the #127 ranked offense and the #36 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
 
2025
Head coach Foster was fired after the third game the regular season where the Bruins were 0-3.  The Bruins played against an “average” strength of schedule (SOS).  At the time of Foster's firing UCLA's worst loss was to #85 ranked New Mexico by a score of (10-35).  UCLA currently is the #128 ranked team overall, with the #119 ranked offense and the #125 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.