UCLA Football: Ethan Garbers Explains How DeShaun Foster Handled Deficit at Halftime

John Robinson | Sep 1, 2024

Aug 31, 2024; Honolulu, Hawaii, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Ethan Garbers (4) scrambles away from Hawaii Rainbow Warriors defensive lineman Dion Washington (19) during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. Mandatory Credit: Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports / Marco Garcia-USA TODAY Sports

The University of California Los Angeles football team flew to Honolulu to take on the University of Hawaii for their season opener. The highly anticipated debut of head coach DeShaun Foster and his new-look Bruins almost ended in disaster as UCLA squeaked out a 16-14 victory over the Rainbow Warriors.

Despite an ugly victory for the Bruins, coach Foster was visibly emotional in the locker room as athletic director Martin Jarmond handed him the game ball in honor of his first victory.

“I kind of kept a lot of stuff bottled in coming into this, so I didn’t want to just be out there all emotional, but I was really excited that we got our first victory, just the way the guys played,” Foster said. “It didn’t really go exactly the way we wanted in the first half, but the second half, they kept fighting, kept playing and we were able to execute and get the job done.”

The Bruins' offense looked abysmal in the first half against Hawaii as they struggled mightily to move the ball up the field. Quarterback Ethan Garbers looked like a shell of himself as he threw two interceptions but he did salvage a bad start in the second half as he completed 13 of 19 passes for 203 yards and a touchdown.

Garbers credits a calm and collected coach Foster for helping the Bruins rally at halftime after a rocky start to their game.

“You know, this is not us,” Foster told the team, according to Garbers. “Let’s get back to what we’ve been doing in practice, what we’ve been doing in fall camp.”

The Bruins' defense was the real star of the show as they looked dominant against the Rainbow Warriors. The unit led by defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, snatched two interceptions and 11 tackles for losses.

Despite the UCLA's less-than-glamorous debut, coach Foster looked at this game as a good lesson in discomfort for his team which has one of the toughest schedules in college football.

“This is exactly what we needed going into what we’re about to go into, you know, we have a lot of road games coming up that are going to be in hostile environments — hot, it’s going to be uncomfortable, so I’m just glad these guys fought through and weathered the storm.”

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