Foster’s Coaches Brought More to Recruiting Than Expected

DeShaun Foster and his UCLA Bruins coaching staff cultivated one of the program's best recruiting classes in recent memory for the class of 2026. When the second-year skipper was revamping his staff this season, though, he didn't expect this much success.

In one of his slew of Big Ten Media Days appearances, Foster discussed this season's recruiting success and how his coaching staff surprised him with their competitiveness.

"It was just something I knew we could do," Foster said of implementing their "Coast-2-Coast" vision and plucking high-rated out-of-state recruits. "UCLA's a beautiful campus. It's a wonderful school. So, if you get people on campus, they're going to want to join. Every time we got a kid from Florida and he came on campus, he wanted to join in."

Four of the Bruins' 23 verbal commits are from Florida, including four-star offensive linemen Johnnie Jones and Micah Smith. All four of their four-star commitments are from out of state.

"I just love that my coaches were taking pride in recruiting," he added. "They're making it competitive between each other. We have younger coaches, and that's what they want to do. So, I'm just excited for this opportunity to continue to keep getting this recruiting class that we have and keep getting up higher and higher."

Bruins Coaches Battle Each Other for Recruits

One of the main reasons UCLA was able to secure these recruits, much to Foster's surprise, was how competitive his coaching staff was in recruiting.

"I wasn't hanging my hat on recruiting," Foster said, recollecting what was important among adding to his staff. "The coaching aspect was probably first, and then the recruiting was 1-B. But it was right there. I wanted to make sure that we had some good coaches first.

"To be honest with you, I didn't know that they were going to compete about recruiting the way that they are doing. I knew that they liked to recruit, but they're competing at it."

Despite losing out on four-star defensive lineman Tufanua Ionatana Umu-Cais to Washington over the weekend, the Bruins have secured 23 commitments and sit at 21st in the nation on 247Sports' national team recruiting ranking.