PASADENA — Gotta feel for DeShaun Foster, man.
The man got his dream job, and so far, it’s pretty much been a nightmare.
And a nightmare on a national stage, for all the college football world to see.
It started with . It continued to UCLA’s sorry, .
And it continued Saturday in the Bruins’ historic Big Ten Conference opening butt-kicking at the Rose Bowl, where before a national NBC audience, : “We’re not there right now,” quarterback Ethan Garbers said. “And there’s a lot of work to be done.”
There figures to be no waking up from this lousy lucid dream any time soon, either. Not at No. 16 LSU next week, or at home against No. 9 Oregon after that, or at No. 8 Penn State the week immediately following.
And once the Bruins get through that gauntlet, there isn’t a gimme left on the schedule. They’ll have to travel all the way to Rutgers on Oct. 19. And Fresno State? The Bulldogs will have their usual bark in the regular-season finale at the Rose Bowl in late November.
But this is what Foster signed up for.
The Bruins’ former star running back signed on to uplift a program that was falling behind under Chip Kelly, who left in February following six tumultuous years.
He wanted to pave a successful pathway in a new, player-empowerment era of college sports, of conference realignment – to infuse some tradition into all that newness by reintroducing things like Saturday’s pregame “Bruin Walk” into the venerable old stadium.
He had to know it wouldn’t be easy.
“This is something I’m built for, y’all; I can do this!” a choked-up Foster said at his introductory news conference at UCLA.
After Saturday’s loss, he promised: “We’re gonna fix this.”
Foster, a former All-American and six-year NFL pro, is popular with fans, with alumni, with players – who celebrated the news that he’d been hired as though they’d won a championship.
The notion of a championship seems very far away, a pipe dream.
Because this was Indiana’s fans roaring victoriously as UCLA’s players walked off the field Saturday night. And, sure, the Hoosiers (3-0 now after finishing 1-8 last season) might be good this season.
And the Bruins might be in real trouble.
They were manhandled in their first Big Ten game, pushed around. Indiana finished with 430 total yards to UCLA’s 238. The Hoosiers had 25 first downs to UCLA’s 16 and averaged 6.9 yards per play to their host’s 4.8. The visitors were 9 for 12 on third down. UCLA was just 2 for 8.
And it could have been worse; the Bruins benefitted from Indiana’s 14 penalties, which cost the Hoosiers 127 yards – just 10 fewer yards than Garbers threw for.
There were issues everywhere for UCLA. There were fumbles to start the drives that started both halves, almost as if they were scripted. There were curious calls on third-and-1 that resulted in sacks. The defense wasn’t set on third down. And the Bruins somehow appeared lackadaisical, even when they were trailing by 18 with a quarter to play.
“It’s just unfortunate the way that this game went,” Foster said after his team was outscored 21-7 in the first half and 21-6 in the second. “The first half kind of didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I didn’t anticipate the second half going this way.”
A lot went bad. None of it was what you’d want to sell to prospective commits, whether they’re coming from high school or via the transfer portal.
“This hurts,” Foster said. “You know, I’m a Bruin through and through, so I don’t want to get emotional up here but that – it hurts. That’s not something that, it’s not acceptable.”
Maybe Foster has to go through it to get through it? Live and lose and learn?
Maybe dreams don’t really come true without sacrifice and struggle first? Maybe someday Bruins fans will be telling bedtime stories about how this era of UCLA football overcame a dreadful first season?
“I have a lot of players in there that look up to me,” Foster said. “And I’m gonna continue to be me and get these guys ready to play some ball.”
Maybe one day Foster will wake up and this part of the experience will be behind him and he’ll be stronger for it?
For now, though, what a nightmare the Bruins are about to be living through.
