“You’re catching me in a sugary moment,” DeShaun Foster is saying, popping the latest in a seemingly endless series of chewy Starburst candies into his mouth. He smiles. “I actually went into that drawer to get a napkin.”

If he needs the occasional sweet jolt, it’s understandable. In February, the soft-spoken, affable former NFL running back was named the new head coach of UCLA football, taking the reins as the Bruins play their first season as a member of the NCAA’s famed Big Ten conference.

“There’s a lot of expectations,” Foster says. “I mean, John Wooden was a coach at this university. I don’t take this lightly. But I do think that the fact I have been part of this program does help.”

Indeed, the North Carolina native, 44, was a standout Bruin running back before playing seven seasons in the NFL, most of them with the Carolina Panthers. Retiring in 2009, Foster was planning to enroll in law school — until UCLA’s legendary Bobby Field, then an athletics administrator, recruited him as an assistant coach in 2013. Aside from one season at Texas Tech, Foster spent the next decade in Westwood.


“There’s a lot of expectations,” Foster says. “I mean, John Wooden was a coach at this university. I don’t take this lightly. But I do think that the fact I have been part of this program does help.”


Entering the Big Ten offers access to a much wider, deeper recruiting class (“The sky’s the limit,” Foster says), more resources, more national television exposure, more travel, more … everything. Including, of course, pressure. Battling the rowdy elite of college football — powerhouses like Nebraska, Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State — presents a formidable long-term challenge. “I can pump up the crowd noise in practice,” Foster admits. “I can’t change the venue.”

Foster coaches by a simple credo: discipline, respect and enthusiasm. But no matter how many Starbursts get chewed, there’s no way to sugarcoat it: The Bruins are considered an underdog this season. Still, their coach remains calm. And undaunted.

“The bigger the game, the more excitement there’ll be,” he says. “I think the players are looking forward to it.”


Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Fall 2024 issue.