UCLA's struggles could worsen as schedule gets tougher

The UCLA football program has seen better days. Much better days. 

It entered Friday's game as a 14-point favorite against New Mexico, paid the Lobos $1.2M to play them and then suffered the embarrassment of losing 35-10 at the Rose Bowl. Adding to the embarrassment for UCLA is that it was New Mexico's first win over a power conference team in nearly 17 years. 

It also dropped second-year head coach DeShaun Foster's record to 5-10 through his first 15 games.

But that is only the beginning of UCLA's problems for this season.

Where is the win for UCLA on this schedule?

That is the question Bruins fans — and the rest of the college football world — have to be asking right now because the situation is looking pretty grim. 

Through three games, the Bruins are not only winless but have been outscored 108-43 and have played two of those three games at home. They haven't even been competitive, nor have they started the most difficult part of their schedule yet. 

That is where things start to get truly concerning.

UCLA has a bye week next week and then opens Big Ten conference play at Northwestern.

That might be the Bruins' best chance for an early season win and maybe one of their only chances for a win all season. Things only get tougher from there.

After playing Northwestern, the Bruins return home to play No. 2 Penn State, then travel to Michigan State, host Maryland, have road games at No. 22 Indiana and No. 1 Ohio State with a home game against Nebraska sandwiched in the middle, and then conclude the season with Washington and USC.

Who are the Bruins going to be favored against out of that group? Who are they going to be expected to beat? Maybe Northwestern?

If it doesn't happen against the Wildcats, where is it going to happen? This is a team that lost by 33 points to a Utah program that won five games a year ago and lost by 25 points to a team that hadn't beaten a power conference school in nearly two decades — both at home. 

UCLA has had dramatic regression under DeShaun Foster

While UCLA has never really been one of college football's biggest powers — at least not recently — this is still a substantial fall from where the program was just a couple of years ago under Chip Kelly. 

In Kelly's last three years, the Bruins were 25-13 overall, appeared in two bowl games and were consistently ranked in the AP poll, climbing as high as No. 9 during the 2022 season. Now, they are paying $1.2M to lose to New Mexico. 

It's not a promising start for Foster's head-coaching tenure. While he was an outstanding player at UCLA between the 1998 and 2001 seasons, rushing for more than 3,000 yards and scoring 43 total touchdowns, he has not yet brought that same energy and success to the sidelines as a head coach.