The UCLA Bruins football program is preparing to undergo foundational and cultural change with its next head coaching hire. Although the best way to avoid the 0–3 catastrophe was to prevent DeShaun Foster from continuing his second year head coaching stint, another surprise is brewing about who will be firing whom this time. Because little did AD Martin Jarmond know that a few are openly protesting for a managerial change too.
That frustration unexpectedly spilled onto campus this week. A black van rolled past, carrying a giant moving screen that left little to the imagination. In glowing letters, the message flashed: “$7 Million buyout for UCLA’s AD? Failure never paid so well. Empty Rose Bowl seats and huge debt. UCLA football fans know AD Martin Jarmond has to go.” Students stopped, stared, and pulled out their phones. Many laughed, some posed for photos, while one student admitted, “More people around could be reason for the billboards being out today specifically.” The mystery driver remained unknown, but the point was obvious. Jarmond’s unsteady public standing wasn’t just about the football coach anymore, it had become about him.
The heat dialed up only hours after Martin Jarmond addressed the media following Foster’s dismissal on Sunday. He didn’t duck responsibility. “I’m the athletic director; ultimately, I’m responsible for a hire, I understand that,” he said. His tone was measured, but the regret was plain. He continued, “I think you make the best decisions with the circumstances and the resources that you have to work with.” Sad thing is, the damage is done now, regretting about his decision putting DeShaun in a tough Big Ten atmosphere and simply admitting that the program wasn’t in the right situation for the Foster hire, won’t fill Bruins’ win column now.
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Those words landed as half confession, half defense, a reminder of how high the stakes are in Westwood. A proud fan base doesn’t wait long before turning its focus elsewhere, and Jarmond knows the microscope has shifted. In the short term, the Bruins handed the whistle to Tim Skipper, Foster’s previous special assistant. Steady if unspectacular, Skipper’s role is more bridge than fix. The bigger play comes with the search committee unveiling on Thursday morning. Jarmond, alongside senior associate AD Erin Adkins, will lean on “accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats” to identify the next coach. They want both “brains” and “Bruins DNA” in the room to help get this one right, and urgently.
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Meanwhile, there’s still football to be played. UCLA heads to Northwestern today, limping yet not lifeless. Pride, more than anything, rides on this trip. Predictors give them the slightest edge, pegging the Bruins for a 17–14 win. That number, however modest, places enormous weight on QB1 Nico Iamaleava. He has carried the stress of expectation for weeks now, and the whispers about his ability to steady the offense only grow louder.
The Bruins have drilled fundamentals, simplified schemes, and stressed discipline in practice. Whether that effort finally translates onto the gridiron, well, the scoreboard in Evanston will tell the truth.
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An empty Rose Bowl and a loyal few, the black van was right
The van wasn’t lying, and the aerial shots really told the same story. UCLA’s attendance has dipped into shockingly low territory. The Rose Bowl, once a cathedral of CFB, hasn’t sniffed real energy since the early 2010s. That decline explains why even on game days, the stadium struggles to fill half its seats. But Week 3 against New Mexico was something else entirely. As the Bruins trudged toward another loss, the crowd barely scraped 25% capacity.
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Can you really blame anyone for staying home though? At 0-3, UCLA has looked lifeless, and Iamaleava’s transfer splash from Tennessee has turned into a puddle of disappointment, weighed down by a leaky defense and paper-thin offensive line.
Yet, a few hundred diehards still showed up, and ESPN’s Josh Pate saluted them with humor: “When I am CFB Commissioner, all 238 of these people will receive medals of honor. UCLA fandom is bravery most could never fathom.”