EXCLUSIVE: UCLA AD Hears From Former Players

With the sudden firing of UCLA football coach DeShaun Foster, there is a lot of activity around the athletic department. Assistant Tim Skipper is the interim coach. A committee is being formed to find the new coach, presumably around December. There is a chain of command issue at stake. And then there is the legacy of UCLA football. More than 100 former players held a Zoom call with athletic director Martin Jarmond Sunday night.

UCLA got whacked by New Mexico Friday night before only 31,163 fans at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins are now 0-3 on the season, going into Big 10 play. Foster had a record of 5-10 since taking over from Chip Kelly in February of last year. Foster was fired by Jarmond Saturday night, with the team told on Sunday morning. That was followed by a press conference on Sunday afternoon. And then came the Zoom meeting carried out by the former players.

Meeting With the Past

In exclusive reporting, Last Word can confirm that more than 100 former UCLA football players were on a Zoom call with Jarmond early Sunday night. That call was instigated by the former players. The confirmation comes via direct phone call with one of the participants and text messages with a couple of others.

The group of former players spanned the decades from the 1970s all the way into the 2010s. Many of them are in continuous private chat groups with each other and talk with some frequency. But the timing of this Zoom call was specific to the current state of affairs with the program, and Jarmond was urged to be a part of it. The “meeting” was set up by, among others, James Washington, the former defensive back and NFL all-pro.

What Jarmond Had to Say

One of the participants, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said the group heard Jarmond out on the decision to fire Foster, the timing of it, and what the next steps are for UCLA football.

According to our sources, Jarmond said the timing of the firing was only partially due to the loss to New Mexico and the 0-3 start. The athletic director said that with UCLA going into a bye week, it would give Skipper time to get settled in as the interim before the Bruins face Northwestern next week. Jarmond also told the Zoom audience that he felt that if a change was going to need to be made, it would need to happen before UCLA starts Big 10 conference play.

Jarmond was reportedly vague about the process going forward. There was no commitment as to whether the next coach had to have head coaching experience, or at least be an offensive or defensive coordinator (Foster made the jump from running backs coach to head coach). Jarmond also did not answer questions about any specifics of the search committee in terms of how big it would be or who would be on it.

Former Players Tell Jarmond What Is On Their Minds

The Zoom meeting also took turns into other directions, with many former players venting that they felt there is a disconnect between the legacy of UCLA football and the current athletic department administration.

Some of the participants on the Zoom call were former UCLA players who have since become local high school coaches. They told Jarmond that Foster was active in his recruiting of the local high schools. But they said before that, and even in present times, if they sent a video of one of their players to the football development offices, or to Kelly during his tenure, they were ignored. As a result, they told Jarmond, UCLA has lost dozens of high-end players to other schools around the country.

Others on the call said the former players feel ignored or disregarded by Jarmond’s administration. There used to be a central point of contact within the athletic department for former players to use as a resource and remain involved with the program. But since the retirement of Jolie Oliver and the lack of a replacement for her, the vibe is that the school has no interest in welcoming the former players to be around the program. “Martin was told he needs to listen more than he does,” one participant told us.

Differing Angles

Sunday night, Ben Bolch of the LA Times reported on his interview with UCLA’s new chancellor, Julio Frenk. The new UCLA chancellor moved west in January of this year after nine years as the president of the University of Miami.

From reading Bolch’s accounting of the conversation, the difference between the former administration of Chancellor Gene Block and the current and future years of Frenk is stark. Frenk told the LA Times that he intends to be very involved in the athletic department and the football program, recognizing that success in a marquee sport like football can be financially advantageous for the school as a whole.

That is contrary to the Block administration, which was notoriously removed from athletics. It was well known by those covering the program that Block rarely went to sporting events unless compelled to do so by Jarmond.

When told of that interview, one of the participants on the Zoom call told Last Word, “We would like to go back to the days of Charles Young,” referring to the often overly zealous support of UCLA football shown by the then-chancellor during his 29 years in office from 1968 to 1997.

To that point, Last Word has received double confirmation that the committee, in its search for a new head coach, will report its findings and recommendations directly to Chancellor Frenk.

By Himself

That strikes a different tone from what Jarmond said at his press conference on Sunday. He said all of the decision-making in terms of the firing of Foster was his, and his alone. “The chancellor trusts me to lead the athletic department. This is a decision I made. I called the chancellor, I’ve been in conversation with him, and I ultimately made this decision, and he supported it, which I’m very thankful for,” Jarmond said.

He was asked during the press conference about conversations he has had with the new chancellor regarding the specifics of the search for the new coach and Jarmond’s role in the process. “Chancellor Frenk and I have not had any conversations about what you just asked–that’s the first I’ve ever heard of that. Chancellor Frenk and I are aligned. He’s been supportive, in lockstep, and he understands that football is important to our athletic program, and he’s been super supportive, so we haven’t had any kind of conversation to what you’re alluding to.”

Autonomy

Jarmond certainly had the autonomy under Chancellor Block to make the personnel decisions, like hiring Foster, needing only tacit approval from the administration. But that autonomy is also why there is increased scrutiny on Jarmond’s decision-making.

In December of 2021, Chip Kelly’s contract was subject to renewal clauses. His tenure to that point had been anything but successful. Jarmond offered him a contract extension, but it had no definitive decision deadline attached to it. Kelly dragged out the process, with some of his people floating that he could return to the Oregon Ducks. In the meantime, several other qualified potential head coaches took jobs elsewhere.

At the end of the 2023 season, Kelly was openly and publicly looking to leave UCLA for an offensive coordinator job elsewhere. Many UCLA fans did not believe he would take the lower job. But he had burned out on all that goes with being a college head coach today. Instead of relieving him of his duties, Jarmond let it go on for nearly six weeks.

Getting Stuck

On February 2^nd of 2024, Foster had a meeting with Jarmond. He was told that he would not be a candidate for the head coaching job if Kelly left. Foster then took the running backs coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders. Kelly left two weeks later, just a few weeks before Spring camp was scheduled to start.

Jarmond made calls to other coaches, but no one was going to leave their job so close to the start of training camp with their current team. The UCLA players vocally rallied around Foster, and he was given the job with little time to spare before camp.

The Jarmond Question

The LA Times and Ben Bolch also recently reported that UCLA has been blatantly and artificially boosting the attendance numbers at games at the Rose Bowl. Bolch obtained the data from the actual ticket scan machines and compared them to UCLA attendance announcements. The difference was usually several thousand, as inflated by UCLA.

Couple that with the handling of Kelly and Foster, and there is a lot of conversation among the former players about just how much of a role Jarmond should play in the hiring of the new coach.

Distinctions

According to Jarmond on the Zoom call, UCLA will put together a search committee and will use the services of a search firm. He did not go into further detail, but the distinction of the roles between the two is important to understand. The committee will actually be meeting with the candidates and sending thoughts and recommendations to Frenk. The role of the search firm is to vet the backgrounds of the candidates. The purpose is to make sure there are no surprises once decisions have been made.

One of the few times in recent history when UCLA relied on a committee to find a new coach, Troy Aikman, Casey Wasserman, Josh Rebholtz, and Dan Guerrero brought Chip Kelly to UCLA.

Transfer Issues

By NCAA rules, because their coach has been fired, the transfer portal is open for 30 days for any UCLA player looking to move on.

But the reality is different. Schools that are on the semester system are well under, and the last day to drop or add classes has come and gone. Players leaving UCLA now are not going to gain academic admission there until next semester, after football season.

There is a question as to whether players would even be eligible somewhere else at all. But if UCLA players wanted to test the system, it would require admission at a school on the same quarter system academic calendar as UCLA. Only five percent of the universities in the country are on that system. And only eight of them are Division I schools with football. Dartmouth, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern, Oregon State, Stanford, UC Davis, Oregon, and the University of Washington are all on the quarter system.

The more likely possibility is that with UCLA having played only three games, players can choose to sit out the rest of the year in order to maintain the option of redshirting, (if they have not already used it). They would enter the portal window when it opens in early December.