Last season, DeShaun Foster led the UCLA Bruins to a 12th place Big Ten Conference finish in his first year as head coach of his alma mater. Despite Foster’s worst-in-conference preseason ranking, UCLA finished with a 5-7 (3-6) record in the coach’s debut year.
CBS Sports’ Cody Nagel sees Foster improving this year — barely.
The Bruins head coach was ranked No. 17 among the 18 Big Ten coaches in Nagel’s 2025 conference coach rankings, released Tuesday. Foster only outranked Northwestern’s David Braun.
“Good news: Foster is no longer at the bottom. Bad news: The UCLA coach moved up just one spot in the Big Ten rankings after a 5-7 debut season in 2024,” Nagel wrote. “The Bruins showed flashes, but consistency -- especially on offense -- was hard to find. Adding five-star transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava certainly raises the ceiling, but expectations remain tempered until Foster proves he can string together wins in a brutal Big Ten slate.”
One of the biggest questions facing the Bruins this college football season is whether or not quarterback Nico Iamaleava will be enough of a catalyst for UCLA’s offensive line.
Iamaleava’s transfer from Tennessee was a major headline this offseason, but CFB analysts like David Pollack are rooting for the quarterback now that the drama has died down. On3’s Andy Staples ranked Iamaleava 4th among conference QBs last week, but Cleveland.com’s Stephen Means predicted Monday the Bruins would finish No. 15 in the Big Ten.
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Foster will need to lead UCLA through a tough conference schedule this season, but it’s not impossible. The Bruins are scheduled to face top Big Ten contenders Penn State and Ohio State, but will avoid matchups with Oregon, Illinois and Michigan.