PASADENA — So, what are we expecting from Season 2 of the DeShaun Foster era? At this point, it’s truly hard to say. But I’ll tell you what, it better be good.
With all the cloak-and-veil stuff over in Westwood this preseason, UCLA better be planning one of college football’s all-time great “surprise!!!” parties. We should expect to see Foster’s team raging at Rose Bowl late Saturday night against Utah with streamers and balloons, cake had and eaten and had again.
Perhaps, then, the surprisingly strict new limits on media access in Westwood this preseason will make more sense.
But I didn’t detect a twinkle in Foster’s eye when he – and only he – spoke after a UCLA practice last week. There wasn’t a hint of the spirit and spunk he brought to proceedings before his Bruins played USC last season.
On the contrary, the Bruins haven’t been saying anything with their whole chest this preseason because they’ve barely said anything at all.
A drip-drop of player perspectives was turned all the way off – though, fortunately, a trickle of interviews are scheduled again this week. And the traditional few-minute “viewing period” customary at most college practices throughout the land? That small sample that never reveals state secrets but gives the beat guys and gals a few worthwhile crumbs to report back to you, Bruins fans? An even smaller sample size, almost all of it stretching. And good luck finding any media photos or videos from the summer – those were banned too.
Foster said it’s because he doesn’t want anyone giving anything away. The D.R.E. guy – Discipline, Respect, Enthusiasm – told reporters to their faces that he didn’t much respect the jobs they had to do. “It’s tough,” he said, “but we’re trying to win games.”
Well, hey, Foster is the boss of football on that campus. And he’s right about this: “If you win games, you’re marketed.” Especially in L.A., where UCLA is located, as he’s reminded us a couple times.
But if the Bruins’ football program – which rallied to finish 5-7 last season after a 1-5 start – is going to take strides to shut out the public, it better also make real strides on the field.
If they go shying away from helping tell the story of progress as it’s being made, well, then Foster’s Bruins better win. And if they go adopting a win-at-all-costs mentality that discourages coverage of a team that’s anything but the it team in town these days, then Foster’s Bruins better win a lot.
They better far exceed that five-win season that ESPN Football Power Index has predicted. Better make it to a third bowl game since 2018. Better hope offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri’s scheming is exciting enough to sell to fans, so it’s no longer a question of whether the Rose Bowl is half-full or half-empty most home games.
Obviously, yes, that’s the goal; it goes without saying so to the media.
But what’s unspoken is perception. And those trade secrets the Bruins have been guarding had better be worth coming across as paranoid, or sensitive, or worried about the wrong things, like perceived adversaries in the press and not the very real ones on the schedule.
Even if it has been all about protecting new IP, or erasing distractions, if things go any which way but up this season, playing hard-to-get with basic information will only make people start to wonder what else you have to hide.
The Bruins did invite the media – along with the public at large – to a free, open practice Saturday at the Rose Bowl. They got all of about 200 people to show up, diehards amid family and friends.
It was, fittingly, a muted affair. There was no music, no public address announcements, no interviews – and no streamers, balloons or cake. After folks found their seats, the Bruins’ walk-through lasted for about 50 minutes of what was billed as a 90-minute affair.
And you know what? It was all good with Al Jimenez, a lifelong Bruins fan from Chino who has season tickets to not just UCLA football games, but men’s and women’s basketball. He’s a regular at baseball and softball games too.
He raised his three boys to love the Bruins, even recruited one of their friends to flip on his Trojans-loving family. He named his eldest son Troy Cade, and this is the time of year that 23-year-old answers his dad’s calls with how many days are left until UCLA football kicks off.
On Saturday, Jimenez was there with his youngest, 18-year-old Lucas, and that friend, Devin. They saw what they came to see: high-profile transfer QB Nico Iamaleava throwing passes for the first time as a Bruin – darts, on the numbers.
Jimenez and his boys are fired up about this season; UCLA could win nine games, he thinks. Foster was his favorite of all the UCLA running backs. He loved his hire last year, loves his work ethic, his passion for the program.
Jimenez is also one of those fans who “wants to know everything about everything about my teams.” And so, unprompted, he told me the only thing he’s not sure about is the new media policy, which he heard discussed on sports talk radio.
Thinking about it, Jimenez figured Foster wants to protect his players – young men making hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, by the way – from saying something dumb (or, apparently, anything at all about their place on the depth chart).
But there’s protecting your quarterback and his teammates, and there’s being overprotective – especially when UCLA’s football players are so often engaging and thoughtful representatives for their university.
It’s a good sign, in that case, that UCLA is planning to make a few players available this week. That there’s a thaw to the preseason ice-out that has been making USC’s generally more-stringent rules for the media look friendly.
Because the Bruins should want L.A. thinking about turning up to the Rose Bowl to catch what could be a surprise team, not thinking about a new media policy.
Fans don’t care about that – or they wouldn’t, not if they had a regular ol’ slice of football news to enjoy instead.
