USC football fans will welcome Clay Helton to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this coming weekend when Helton’s Georgia Southern Eagles play the Trojans. Across town in Westwood, UCLA might have found its own version of Clay Helton. USC fans could not be happier. DeShaun Foster is beginning to look like a coach who is in over his head. Remind you of anyone? College Sports Wire identified Foster as having one of the worst coaching performances from Week 1 of the new season:
“DeShaun Foster has a clear message for the 2025 season: Winning cures all. Foster spoke during media availability … about the Bruins having tighter restrictions on practices, player interactions with media and the players’ spot on the depth chart. Some might call it paranoia, some might call it smart, but Foster isn’t taking any chances in Year 2 after the Bruins went 5-7 in their first season in the Big Ten Conference. No players were made available for media … Foster prevented the media from filming clips from practice.
“Trying to block out media distractions? Understandable. Doing that and then serving up a total clunker in Week 1? That’s a bad look — almost as bad as Kalen DeBoer and Alabama.”
DeShaun Foster coached horribly against Utah. He lost by 33 points. Guess what he told Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times? Bolch quoted Foster — after looking at game film — as saying, “We were close.”
What? Did he really say that? Just to make sure, Bruin Report Online of 247Sports confirmed the quote.
If a coach ever sounded like Clay Helton, that’s it. Right there.
Let’s say this much: If UCLA does beat UNLV, maybe Foster will deserve some credit for fixing things. However, if UCLA loses to Vegas, the Bruins will be 0-2 before playing a single Big Ten game. They will be in huge trouble.
Clay Helton — or rather, DeShaun Foster — has painted himself into a corner.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: UCLA’s head football coach is beginning to sound a lot like Clay Helton
Reporting by Matt Zemek / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
