PASADENA — Didn’t you hear? UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond hired the right guy.
DeShaun Foster repeated it – “Martin hired the right guy” – for the doubters in the back Friday, echoing his statement from the precious week in Nebraska, spelling it out for all of our benefits.
Speaking to the media – and to you, too, be honest – with the game ball tucked at his side, UCLA’s first-year head coach basked in his first coaching victory at the Rose Bowl, flashing that megawatt smile after his formerly flailing Bruins became back-to-back-to-back Big Ten Conference winners.
UCLA woke up Saturday morning with a 4-5 record after they wore down Iowa with a gutty 20-17 victory beneath the Friday night lights, before a crowd of 53,467.
Too soon to say the Bruins are so back?
It might not be, no sir. Because as hard as it was to imagine them becoming bowl eligible a month ago after their meltdown against Minnesota left them 1-4, it’s tougher now to picture them not going bowling.
Truly, a remarkable turnaround.
And honestly, one that Foster forecast.
After the Bruins’ 34-13 loss to now No. 1 Oregon on Sept. 28, what would be their third defeat in a five-game skid, Foster called for a strong chance of comeuppance: “I know y’all see it – some of you choose not to, but they’re improving and we’re just going to continue to improve and keep working hard and eventually it’s going to turn around.”
And after things went so wrong against the Gophers, the dude didn’t flinch, never mind that his Bruins were 1-5 and sputtering offensively, statistically among the worst in the nation in total offense, scoring offense and rushing: “I got some resilient dudes and we’re gonna continue to fight and it’s gonna turn around.”
He called it, Foster did. The script has flipped – and, reading it this way, the right way, it’s a pretty good story. One about having to take baby bear steps before you can get it just right.
“It’s been getting better each week,” Foster said Friday. “It wasn’t just all of a sudden we just came out there and it came together. It’s been getting better each week.”
UCLA has emerged from an early season gauntlet that was even more precarious than we first fathomed. The first-year head coach’s second, third, fourth and fifth games came against Indiana, LSU, Oregon and Penn State, teams that are now ranked Nos. 8, 14, 1 and 6 in the nation – a fire that forged something formidable.
Because now UCLA will be bowl eligible if it can win two of its final three games, with contests remaining at Washington and against USC and Fresno State, all unranked. Tell me the Bruins can’t? Tell me why they won’t win all three?
Quarterback Ethan Garbers is feeling good about it: “The goal is to win out and become bowl eligible, and I think that’s what we’re going to do.”
After all, they just out-Big Ten’d Iowa, chewing time slowly, eating up 37:33 of clock. They nullified the Hawkeyes’ vaunted run game, holding them to 80 yards on the ground, an insignificant drop in the bucket compared with the Big Ten-leading 222.3 yards they averaged entering play.
Instead, it was UCLA that was truckin’, turning to T.J. Harden 20 times for 125 yards to spearhead a rushing attack that netted a season-high 211 yards.
Beat the spread? The Bruins pulled the whole upset, dancing on oddsmakers who made them 6.5-point underdogs in their own homecoming game.
And it was a real turn-that-frown-upside-down affair, a microcosm of the season so far.
Because it took the Bruins overcoming a potentially disastrous start, a 10-0 first-quarter deficit compounded by interceptions on their first two drives – a gut punch out of the gate that would have leveled most teams. But on the Bruins’ sideline, Foster’s fellas didn’t miss a beat, you could see helmets bobbing to the music, as if they knew what was brewing.
They just needed some magic off Mateen Bhaghani’s foot – his 57-yard field goal early in the second quarter was the second-longest in program history and, ultimately, the difference in the game – and it was all downhill from there.
UCLA, without tight end Moliki Matavao and receivers Rico Flores Jr. and J.Michael Sturdivant, rolled to a 415-265 edge in total yards. The Bruins flexed and flew around defensively, keyed again by linebacker Carson Schwesinger, a former walk-on turned Butkus Award semifinalist, who recorded his first two career interceptions and made seven tackles.
And they stopped the slide and turned the thing around, brought the road show home, just like Foster has been warning he would – and not just after those losing lessons, but from the moment he was hired in February.
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“You’re gonna see it, you’re gonna feel it,” he said in his introductory news conference on campus, an achingly heartfelt affair filled with hundreds of friends, former teammates and players who believed. “We’re gonna get this Rose Bowl back to how it needs to be. We’re in L.A. We are UCLA! This is a real university. This isn’t a part-time school. We win banners in every sport. We can do it. I just got to get football back.
“I promise you, I’m the man to do this.”
Look at him now, bringing back Bruins football and the bomber jacket.
He said Friday night that he was glad the weather cooled off so he could wear the jacket again – a real meteorologist, this guy, we should have trusted his forecast the whole time.