UCLA Football: Maurice Jones-Drew Has Bold Prediction for Bruins in 2025

Jeremy Hanna | Oct 16, 2024

Sep 14, 2024; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster reacts after the game against the Indiana Hoosiers at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

After winning their first game against Hawaii, the UCLA Bruins have been on a losing streak, coming up short five games in a row.

There are a ton of factors causing this drop in quality, including injuries and major changes in the coaching staff, including the loss of defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn and the gain of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

The most significant change comes with head coach DeShaun Foster, who took on the position in March after Chip Kelly left the program in February and joined Ohio State as its offensive coordinator.

Now, Foster is a head coach for the first time in his coaching career. But according to former UCLA running back Maurice Jones-Drew, he's more than ready for the job. He just needs a little bit of time.

"We're struggling at UCLA," Jones-Drew told James Brizuela of LA Sports Report. "I just actually had a call yesterday morning about this because I tell people he took this job over in March, right? He didn't even get a chance to, like, put his culture in throughout the off-season. Soon as he goes there, they're right into Spring ball. So he's doing a lot of thing on the fly."

Jones-Drew noted that patience is key and that there are plenty of recruits coming in that will more reflect how Foster wants football to be at UCLA.

"They're getting better each week, right? And I think that's the most important thing is each week if you show growth and get better. Like, occasionally, you're gonna have a dull game.

"But look: they're going into a thing where you had half the team leave in the portal. The D coordinator left and went to SC. A lot of people that were the glue of that team last year and those stars that went to the league, they were big time players."

"I think it's about timing and I think he's gonna learn a lot this year. And then you'll see a big jump next year as UCLA gets rolling."

This would be huge for the UCLA Football program, which hasn't seen a double-digit win record in ten years.

If Foster is able to turn this around in the next couple of seasons, fans could be looking at one of the best Bruins teams in UCLA history.

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