How Early Losses are Benefiting Bruins Late in the Season

UCLA's latest wins have partly been a product of what they learned from their losses earlier in the year.

Nov 8, 2024; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster leaves the field with the game ball after defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

UCLA football started the season 1-5 in its first year under Coach DeShaun Foster.

After just six games, most fans were probably ready to get the year over with, but now, as the Bruins head into Week 12, they have three games to try to clinch a bowl bid, needing two wins to do so.

UCLA has put together three straight wins, all of which came down to the wire.

Foster believes that the losses early on helped prepare his squad for these late-game situations that the Bruins have been able to thrive in.

"I'm just excited for how we're playing right now, towards the end of the season," Foster told reporters on Tuesday. "I think we've learned a lot from some of those losses we took earlier in the year, and it's just, it's helping us prepare and just get ready for this last little West Coast run that we have. So, i'm just pleased with how my team has been improving each week, and there's still room for improvement, so I'm excited for this weekend, also."

The Bruins were within a possession heading into the fourth quarter of their Week 4 meeting with LSU before the Tigers pulled away with 10 unanswered points in the final quarter. LSU won, 34-17.

Then in Week 7, UCLA was down just 4 points against Minnesota going into the fourth, despite having allowed 14 unanswered points in the third. The Bruins were ultimately unable to get the win, falling 21-17.

Foster said his team has learned "how to just keep fighting."

"Because most of those games that we lost, we were putting ourselves in bad situations," he said. "So, we were shooting ourselves in the foot, and we weren't mature enough to come back from some of those situations. So, I just think that if we continue to not do dumb things that's going to hurt the team, I think that we should be OK."

The Bruins will look to continue their win streak when they head to Washington to take on the Huskies on Saturday. It will be another hostile road environment, but Washington is an opponent UCLA knows well from their time together as members of the Pac-12.

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