UCLA’s DeShaun Foster answers what type of pitchman he’ll be – on target

LOS ANGELES — DeShaun Foster’s introductory – re-introductory? – news conference didn’t tell us what kind of head football coach he will ultimately be, but it should have assuaged any fears about his abilities as a salesman.

Because if I’m a recruit and I meet the man who sat at the dais Tuesday, beaming while wiping away tears, passion personified?

It would take a heck of a lot of willpower to stop myself from hopping up off the couch and shouting, “Westwood ho!”

If I’m a kid with pro aspirations and someone who was an NFL running back for seven seasons promises to prepare me for the big time like he did for Bruins running backs four consecutive years? As he did Joshua Kelley, a former walk-on who was drafted in 2020 by the Chargers and who remembers Foster fondly, for “knowing how to talk to people, how to make you feel special”?

You better believe Foster, UCLA’s new head football coach, has my attention.

If I’m a potential donor with an allegiance to UCLA and it’s Foster, the player whom I cheered for during his glory days on the gridiron, repeating Tuesday’s promise that he’ll hit the ground running like he did as a collegian in 1998? If that brought me gladly back to when he was a freshman and rushed for 10 touchdowns to help drive UCLA to a conference title and a Rose Bowl berth?

I might feel I owed him for the memories alone.

If I hear him promise that the Bruins will measure success next season by victories on the scoreboard and no other metric? And how important to him it will be to fill the Rose Bowl back to the brim like it was when he was bringing it every week in college?

I’d be keen to help.

If I heard him promise, with his whole broad chest, that he’s the right guy to lead UCLA’s turnaround – “This is something I’m built for, y’all; I can do this!” – I’d want to believe him.

The concern, of course, is that Foster is going to over-promise and underdeliver. That where UCLA is and where UCLA needs to be to compete for a Big Ten title will prove too much ground to cover in Year 1, or Years 2 or 3, by which time even the best sales pitch will ring hollow.

Because, yes, Foster’s swift, mid-February hire scores a point for continuity – but in this case, that means keeping together a band that hit a lot of sour notes last season, going 8-5 overall and 4-5 in the Pac-12, including late-season letdowns against Arizona, Arizona State and Cal.

Here’s the thing, though. No matter how few current players hit the transfer portal (none at all so far, said UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond), or how many assistant coaches are retained, UCLA is different under Foster.

It struck me, watching him answer questions Tuesday – his expression making me go, “ohhh, that’s why they call it ‘a bright smile’” – that Foster is kind of the antithesis of Chip Kelly. A much different dude than the beleaguered former Bruins coach who skipped town last week for a job as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.

Kelly seems smug, Foster is earnest. Kelly has quips, Foster was straightforward in front of the few hundred people who filled the Pavilion Club downstairs at Pauley Pavilion.

Kelly’s only real ties to UCLA are the six seasons he coached there; Foster’s connection runs deep – 14 years he’s spent on the campus as a coach or a player, or otherwise dreaming of returning, he said.

Kelly came in with a well-documented track record across varying levels of football, including notable head coaching success. In four seasons as Oregon’s head coach, his offenses sped up and spread out and the Ducks went 46-7, won three Pac-12 titles and played for the 2010 national championship.

Foster has no track record, no experience as a head coach. None even as a coordinator. Nothing he wants even to divulge yet, not until he lands on an offensive coordinator. The man’s a mystery in that way, coming in with a clean slate and lots to learn – and looking like he could still suit up and run for a first down, if he had eligibility remaining.

Kelly is a 60-year-old from New Hampshire; Foster is a 44-year-old from Tustin – and far and away the first choice among the 20-year-olds on the team, players who lobbied hard on Foster’s behalf last week and went bananas on Monday when they learned they’d been heard.

An unforgettable moment. ✨ @DeShaunFoster26 #GoBruins pic.twitter.com/i8opcBbGiE

— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) February 12, 2024

“I tell my players, (like the rapper) Meek Mill: They’re chasing dreams, we’re catching them,” Foster said. “We’re dreamcatchers, that’s what we’re doing.”

The best leaders do it by example, right?