UCLA Football: DeShaun Foster Pushes Back on Bruins Needing to 'Fix' Run Game

Valentina Martinez | Sep 16, 2024

Sep 14, 2024; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster (left) and Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti shake hands after the game at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Although DeShaun Foster is a former NFL running back, he doesn't think his previous experience will help him fix UCLA's run game.

"Anybody can run the ball; coach Kelly ran the ball and he didn’t play running back, so you guys are putting more on it than anything," Foster told Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times.

The Bruins' Big Ten debut featured a 42-13 blowout loss to Indiana. Once again, UCLA looked disorganized and unprepared.

Bruins quarterback Ethan Garbers went 14 of 23 with no touchdowns and one interception. UCLA hoped the run game would stand out in light of Garbers' struggle, but it never happened.

The Bruins recorded 96 total rushing yards on Saturday, 49 of those yards came in the second half. T.J. Harden finished the game with 48 yards on 12 carries as the primary ball carrier for the Blue and Gold.

After another lackluster performance, Garbers thought the run game was one of the few highlights of the night.

“Our running game was really good, especially in the second half,” Garbers told Los Angeles Daily News' Haley Sawyer. “We seemed to move the ball pretty well that way. Indiana’s defense, they did a really good job of containing us but at the end of the day, it comes down to us. We didn’t execute out there like we need to and like we should.”

Despite Garbers' opinion of UCLA's performance on the ground, it's evident the Bruins are not meeting the standard.

Foster was a former running back for the Bruins at a time when UCLA football was popular and, well, successful. Foster's experience combined with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy's coaching career should add up to a phenomenal run game, right?

So far, it hasn't. And Foster believes that his previous experience playing the position doesn't help him with fixing UCLA's current problem.

The Big Ten Conference debut was catastrophic. Foster wants his program to be the crown jewel of Los Angeles, but the city won't adore UCLA until it can beat programs like Indiana.

“That’s not the standard that we’re looking for,” Foster said. “We’ve got to improve and we’ve got to learn from this and we just can’t make any excuses. Guys just didn’t come out and we didn’t play the way that we would like to play and I’m just glad that I had a few guys out there still fighting toward the end.”