UCLA Football: DeShaun Foster Gets Candid with Bruins About His Playing Days vs Big Ten

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The UCLA Bruins are heading for the Big Ten for the first time this season, giving them more challenges ahead. The football team struggled at times to keep up while in the Pac-12 and now will be faced with stronger competition moving forward.

The Bruins brought in a new head coach, DeShaun Foster, to help usher in the new era of UCLA football. Foster has received all sorts of praise thus far for helping to build a better culture around the team.

During media day for the Big Ten, Foster was asked about his own playing days and whether he talks to his players about it. The rookie head coach joked that the young kids don't want to hear about his old playing days from years ago.

"I try to just give them examples of just certain situations, ya know, they don't really want to hear about my playing days too much so I don't get into that often. But I beat Michigan, Ohio State, played Wisconsin so we've played a lot of Big Ten teams."

Foster played football for the Bruins from 1998-2001. He set a UCLA rushing record as a freshman, registering 673 yards and 10 touchdowns over 11 games.

He and the Bruins lost to Wisconsin in 1998, lost to Ohio State in 1999, beat Michigan in 2000, and finally beat Ohio State in 2001. Foster knows about the Big Ten so his players may want to listen when he speaks. 

It's an entirely new set of obstacles for the Bruins moving forward but they are embracing it head on. UCLA believes in Foster to lead them forward and the team has rallied around him thus far.

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Matt Levine

MATT LEVINE

Matt earned a Master of Science degree in Sport Management from Louisiana State University in 2021. He was born and raised in the Los Angeles area, covering all Southern California sports in his career.