UCLA coach DeShaun Foster fired at 0-3 after raising fan expectations with controversial transfer quarterback

UCLA football coach DeShaun Foster has been fired in Pasadena after the Bruins fell to 0-3 with Saturday's 35-10 upset loss to New Mexico.

'I want to extend my sincere appreciation to DeShaun for his contributions to UCLA Football over the course of many years, first as a Hall of Fame student-athlete, then as an assistant coach and finally as head coach,' UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmondn said in a statement.

'He was named to this role at a challenging time of year, on the cusp of a move to a new conference, and he embraced it, putting his heart into moving the program forward. His legacy and love for this university are firmly established. He is a Bruin for life, and we wish him, his wife, Charity, and their family the best.'

Forster, a former NFL running back, faced higher expectations in 2025 after luring Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the West Coast.

Iamaleava was a successful quarterback who led the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff last season, then abruptly picked up stakes to head closer to home and play for UCLA, with money being the most obvious motive. 

Reports circulated that he was looking for a raise — maybe a doubling to nearly $4 million a year — to come back to the Vols. Then, one day last spring, Iamaleava missed practice and suddenly vanished from Knoxville.

Before he'd even enrolled at Tennessee, Iamaleava was causing his share of turmoil. It was his NIL deal with the Vols that triggered an NCAA investigation and a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia in January 2024.

The NCAA settled that lawsuit, and though there aren't as many questions about who makes the payments to the players (the colleges can do it themselves now), recriminations that flowed when Iamaleava enrolled at Tennessee kept flowing after he made his move to UCLA.

Asked about what triggered his move and exactly when it happened, Iamaleava said it came around the time 'false stuff about whether it was a financial thing or not' started coming out that made him 'not feel comfortable in the position I was in.'

Then, in a revelation that not everyone appears quite ready to accept, he said moving closer to where he grew up, in Long Beach, California, about 30 miles from the UCLA campus, was the biggest piece of the puzzle.

'My driving factor to come back home was my family, and I hope every Tennessee fan understands that,' he said. 'It was really one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make.'

That decision, thus far, has looked like a bad one. 

Iamaleava was 22 of 34 passing for 217 yards and a touchdown, and the Bruins didn't have a chance with a sloppy effort on both sides of the ball exacerbated by 13 penalties for 116 yards.

'Yeah, it's pretty low right now,' Foster said about the state of the program. 'I've been around this program for a long time, and it's just unfortunate what's going on at this moment. Just not executing.'

After attempting trick play passes on the first two snaps, the Lobos turned to the ground game and immediately found success, leading to Humphrey´s 1-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.

'I thought we may have to wear them down as the game went on, but we ran it well early, so credit to the O-line,' Eck said.

Layne lobbed a fourth-down toss to tight end Simon Mapa in the corner of the end zone for an 8-yard score to make it 14-0 before the Bruins finally got on track with Iamaleava's 12-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Titus Mokiao-Atimalala.

After UCLA pulled within 14-10 on Mateen Bhaghani's 51-yard field goal in the third quarter after recovering a muffed punt, New Mexico took charge for good with a punishing 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by Bankston´s 2-yard touchdown run.

'I ain't gonna lie, me personally, I thought it was gonna be a closer game,' Bankston said. 'But once we got to halftime, and we realized that we had a lot of mistakes and we still had the lead, it was like, let´s go ahead and, like, try to pull away from these guys.'