UCLA Football: DeShaun Foster Addition Could Be Sneakily Cost-Effective For LA

So far, things have worked out for the Bruins.

The UCLA Bruins wasted no time finding a new head coach after Chip Kelly left for Big 10 powerhouse Ohio State. 

It was quite a surprise for the Bruins, but they hired in-house and decided to go with former running backs coach DeShaun Foster. Foster now has the keys to the entire ship. it's too early to tell what kind of work he'll do, but it's clear he's a slam-dunk hire for the players, alumni, and fans. 

However, On3's Andy Staples views it a bit differently right now. According to Staples, as a 'let's see what happens with this' type of contract and compared it to an SEC school hire. 

“The DeShaun Foster hire, it definitely feels like they have sort of said, ‘Let’s see what happens with this,'”

Andy Staples said.

“Again, we need to see details of the contract, the finer details of the contract, but I suspect it will look somewhat similar to

Zach Arnett

‘s contract at

Mississippi State

. Maybe not as lopsided toward the school as that Zach Arnett contract was, which basically allowed them to get out of it in year one, and if he’d gotten a high paying coordinator job, the buyout would’ve been basically free.”

per Andy Staples via On3

To many outsiders looking in, it does seem like an odd hire. You would think UCLA would go big game hunting for a head coach; however, the program gave their players a time limit, and Foster came along. 

The Chip Kelly era was coming to an end. It was a matter of 'when' not 'if,' and it came last Friday. It would come eventually, and luckily for the Bruins, Kelly left them. Because of that, it saved the Bruins money instead of having them lose money if they had fired Kelly. 

“So, this one, UCLA ends up making some money off Chip Kelly leaving. Now, I don’t know if Martin Jarmond wanted to chase Chip Kelly. I think at some point they wanted to fire Chip Kelly. That was not feasible because someone said, ‘No. We’re not paying this money,’ but that sent the message that got Chip out of there. So, I think they ultimately got what they wanted in terms of not having Chip Kelly in charge anymore.”

per Andy Staples via On3

It's a win-win for the program, Kelly and Foster. The program hired their man fast enough, who players wanted, and saved money. For Kelly, time was winding down, and he got an upgrade of a job. And for Foster, he will lead his former school as the main guy at the helm.