Five questions facing UCLA entering fall camp: Can Bruins become talk of Big Ten?
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Mercifully, for DeShaun Foster, the time for talk is over.
His opening monologue at Big Ten media days — was saying “We’re in L.A.” supposed to be a joke? — became the talk of the event, even if the criticism might have been a bit unfair.
After fumbling over his words and making jaws drop to the Lucas Oil Stadium turf during several excruciatingly long pauses, UCLA’s new football coach went on to deliver amusing, insightful takes on his team while meeting with smaller groups of broadcasters and reporters.
Asked what he knew about Iowa football, Foster praised the Hawkeyes’ tradition and recalled being impressed by former star running back Tavian Banks. The coach then wryly decided he would be the one asking questions.
“What do you guys know about the Bruins?” Foster asked the handful of reporters gathered around him, prompting laughter.
Responded one reporter: “In L.A.”
DeShaun Foster’s gentle sobbing was drowned out by the roaring applause from a few hundred UCLA donors, players and alumni, who approved of his hiring.
Said Foster: “There you go.”
Later, Foster explained his struggles on the big stage by saying he felt more comfortable answering questions than speaking extemporaneously. So here are five questions facing the Bruins as they prepare to open fall training camp Wednesday on campus:
What will constitute a successful debut season for Foster?
Foster smartly said he wouldn’t furnish a number of wins that would make him happy, preferring to focus on competing in every game while exhibiting his pillars of discipline, respect and enthusiasm.
Declining to provide a tangible win-loss threshold leaves a lot more wiggle room for the rookie coach to declare his first season a success, but there should be some baseline expectations.
Six wins and above — resulting in a bowl game — should be universally hailed as a wild achievement given Foster’s whirlwind hiring in mid-February and the heavy personnel losses on defense.
Four or five wins while showing promise amid a strong finish to the season — including a victory over USC on Nov. 23 at the Rose Bowl — should satisfy fans and the recruits that Foster will need to compete at a high level in the Big Ten.
Three wins or fewer, well, yikes. While some might consider this a write-off season for Foster given the circumstances and UCLA’s most challenging schedule since predecessor Chip Kelly’s debut in 2018, it’s going to be hard to generate any buzz with victories over, say, Hawaii, Indiana and Minnesota offset by three times as many losses.
Can UCLA make a quick transition to the Big Ten?
Defensive lineman Jay Toia has already started studying his new, beefier counterparts.
“The Big Ten has a lot of great O-linemen — you know, you look at Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio State, just, everybody,” Toia said last week. “Just the competitiveness and the amount of O-linemen that have been drafted [into the NFL] from the Big Ten Conference, it’s just insane.”
What has Toia done to prepare for the bigger bodies? He’s actually slimmed down into the best shape of his career, shedding pounds to increase mobility. Toia said the Bruins won’t be intimidated given they’re used to playing physical teams such as Utah and Oregon State.
“I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle,” Toia said of the move to the Big Ten.
There will also be some new fans headed to the Rose Bowl. Indiana has not played in the stadium since 1968, absorbing a 14-3 loss to USC in its only appearance in the Rose Bowl game. Iowa has worked with Delta Airlines to add a nonstop flight from Cedar Rapids to Los Angeles on Nov. 7 for fans seeking a more convenient route to Southern California ahead of the game the following day.
Foster said the biggest adjustment could be the wow factor of his players walking into Beaver Stadium on Oct. 5 and seeing more than 100,000 fans dressed in white before playing Penn State.
“Just to get out there and play in a huge stadium and play a really good football team,” Foster said, “I don’t think they’ve been in that hostile of an environment before.”
At least the Bruins probably won’t have to deal with snow that week given the game will be played in early October.
“Yeah, there’s no problem with that,” Foster said with a chuckle. “We’re going to end up catching some snow at some point.”
How will the Bruins handle all those extra travel miles?
Using Google Earth to measure the distance between each team’s home stadium and its respective game sites, Bookies.com calculated that UCLA will travel the most miles — a whopping 22,048 — of any Big Ten team this season. (Yes, we know the Bruins are an outlier among conference teams considering they play home games so far away from campus, but the point remains.)
That a decent chunk of those miles will be logged making nonconference trips to Hawaii and Louisiana State won’t lessen the Bruins’ chances of qualifying for elite status on multiple airlines.
What might be more significant than the miles flown is the number of time zones traveled — 26, also a high among Big Ten teams. In his discussions with sleep experts, UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said he discovered that time zones traveled was the biggest challenge as far as potential disruption to a body’s biorhythms.
The Bruins are tailoring their departure times to best keep their players performing at an optimal level — and providing some much-needed rest and relaxation on the back end of each trip whenever possible. After playing Hawaii in its season opener Aug. 30, UCLA will remain in Honolulu for an extra day instead of flying back to Los Angeles immediately after the game.
Can Ethan Garbers make the offense elite?
It depends on how many games the redshirt senior quarterback can play.
If he is able to avoid the injury issues that sidelined him for parts of last season — remember those dreadful home losses to Arizona State and California? — then there’s no reason to think that Garbers can’t emerge as one of the Big Ten’s top quarterbacks in his final college season.
It’s an issue that Garbers listed playing in every game as his top personal goal. It will be up to a reconstructed offensive line to keep him from sustaining too many hits.
Transfer Reuben Unije (Louisville) projects as a possible starter at left tackle alongside fellow newcomer Alani Makihele (Nevada Las Vegas) at right guard. They will likely be joined by Josh Carlin at center, Spencer Holstege at left guard and Garrett DiGiorgio at right tackle as part of a unit that wants to at least cut in half last season’s 42 sacks given up, which ranked No. 113 out of 130 major college teams.
Garbers has been riding a massive high since coming off the bench to complete nine of 12 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns during UCLA’s comeback victory over Boise State in the Los Angeles Bowl. He closed spring practice in strong fashion after mastering Eric Bieniemy’s West Coast offense and becoming a vocal leader in teaching the new scheme to teammates.
As far as Garbers is concerned, UCLA’s offense has far more upside than it showed in 2023. His favorite targets figure to be J.Michael Sturdivant, Titus Mokiao-Atimalala, Logan Loya and Moliki Matavao, who could comprise one of the Big Ten’s best receiving corps.
“I feel like we’re going to make a huge jump from last season,” Garbers said. “I mean, what you saw toward the end on the offensive side of the ball is just a glimpse of what you’re going to see this year. We’re going to be explosive and we’re going to throw the ball around the yard for sure.”
How big of a dropoff will the defense experience?
There’s no sugarcoating the loss of linebacker Darius Muasau and edge rushers Laiatu Latu, Carl Jones Jr. and twins Grayson and Gabriel Murphy, who last season combined for 32 of the team’s 43 sacks.
But the Bruins possess enough playmakers to forge an above-average defense in their new conference.
“It’s going to be more of a collective [effort] than just one guy coming out and replacing Latu,” Foster said, referencing the Bruins’ only first-round NFL draft pick. “It’s going to be the whole defense.”
Toia is the literal and figurative centerpiece, an interior defensive lineman capable of stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. Linebacker Ale Kaho is set to return after missing most of the last two seasons with foot injuries and will be joined at the position by the talented Kain Medrano and Oluwafemi Oladejo.
Transfer safeties Ramon Henderson (Notre Dame) and Bryan Addison (Oregon) should complement returning cornerbacks Jaylin Davies and Devin Kirkwood as part of one of the better secondaries on the West Coast.
The question is how much of a pass rush the Bruins can generate. If they can sustain pressure on the quarterback, then they will likely go bowling in Foster’s first season. If not, then the Cleveland.com preseason media poll that picked UCLA to finish 15th in the 18-team Big Ten might be spot on, and the Bruins’ new coach might have some explaining to do.
“Actions,” Foster said, alluding to his verbal stumbles, “speak louder than words to me.”
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