UCLA has started its season a very ugly 0-3 and already fired its head coach. Now what?
PASADENA, CA – AUGUST 30: UCLA Bruins fans in the stands during a football game between the UCLA Bruins and the Utah Utes on August 30, 2025, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. (Photo by Greg Fiore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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UCLA Football At An Inflection Point
There was a time when UCLA Football meant always being in the hunt to play in the Rose Bowl as the Pacific Coast Conference champion against the champion of the Big 10 Conference. During the 1950’s under Coach Red Sanders UCLA would win a national championship in 1954 (Coaches’ Poll) and three conference championships. Sanders’ teams achieved an impressive 66–19–1 record.
(Original Caption) Los Angeles, California, ca. 1955. Bob Davenport, Jim Decker, and Sam Brown (L to R), UCLA’s key backfield men, are shown in dressing room after winning game with SC 17-7. Today’s win assures UCLA a bid to the Rose Bowl game Jan. 2nd., 1956.
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In the 1980’s and 1990’s Coach Terry Donahue led the Bruins to a 151–74–8 record, which included five conference championships and three Rose Bowl wins (1983, 1984, and 1986). His teams also set an NCAA record with eight consecutive bowl wins.
Troy Aikman #8, Quarterback for the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA Bruins runs the ball during the NCAA Pac-10 college football game against the University of Arizona Wildcats on 22nd October 1988 at the Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The Bruins won the game 38 – 15. (Photo by Mike Powell /Allsport/Getty Images)
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And finally in the late 1990’s under Coach Bob Toledo the Bruins were highly ranked, reaching #1 in the first BCS poll. They had a 20-game winning streak and won the Pac-10 championship in 1998.
14 Nov 1998: UCLA Bruins head coach Bob Toledo celebrates a victory over the Washington Huskies at the Husky Stadium in Seattle, Washington. The Bruins defeated the Huskies 36-24. Mandatory Credit: Otto Greule Jr. /Allsport
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UCLA football has not won a conference title since then. In the 27 seasons since 1998, the team has only finished ranked in the top 15 once, after a 10-3 season under Jim Mora in 2014. In other words UCLA has been mired in mediocrity for almost 30 years.
Sustained Mediocrity Leads To Low Attendance
PASADENA CA – SEPTEMBER 12, 2025: UCLA Bruins head coach Deshaun Foster on the sidelines in the final moments of the Bruins 35-10 loss to New Mexico at the Rose Bowl on September 12, 2025 in Pasadena, California.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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This mediocrity led to poor attendance for home games in the Rose Bowl. In an article this month in the Los Angeles Times sportswriter Ben Bolch documented plummeting attendance figures since 2014. UCLA’s five worst home season-attendance figures since moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982 have come over the last five seasons not interrupted by COVID-19, including 46,805 last season. That figure ranked 16th among the 18 Big Ten Conference teams, ahead of only Maryland and Northwestern, which was playing at a temporary lakeside stadium seating just 12,023.
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 12: A general view as the UCLA Bruins walk into the locker room prior to the game against the New Mexico Lobos at Rose Bowl Stadium on September 12, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
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“Since we are now in the era of NIL and revenue sharing, where cash is king,” said David Carter, an adjunct professor of sports business at USC, “every school hoping to play competitive big-time football needs to generate as much revenue and excitement around its program as possible. But since empty seats don’t buy beer or foam fingers, let alone merchandise and parking, any and all other forms of revenue are needed to offset these chronic game-day losses in revenue.”
2024: Big 10 To The Rescue
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – JULY 26: The Big Ten logo on a helmet during the Big Ten Conference Media Days on July 26, 2023 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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UCLA officially joined the Big 10 in 2024 after abruptly announcing their plan to leave the Pac 12 Conference in June of 2022. UCLA historically had been one of the most successful athletic programs in history having won 124 NCAA championships second only to Stanford and sending hundreds of athletes to the Olympic Games, the NBA and NFL. Yet the school had to loan the athletic department $30 million in fiscal year 2024–a subsidy that did not come close to a deficit of $50 million. It was the sixth straight fiscal year that UCLA’s athletic department had operated in the red and those deficits totaled nearly $220 million.
The move to the Big 10 then was all about a bail out in the form of a massive media rights deal the conference had signed. But it came with a cost in the form of travel. There were long trips for athletes in the Pac 12 era to places like Boulder and Seattle, but nothing like the Big 10. This season, UCLA visits Northwestern, Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State. The shortest of those distances is approximately 2,000 miles each way.
PISCATAWAY, NEW JERSEY – OCTOBER 19: Ethan Garbers #4 of the UCLA Bruins runs for a touchdown during the second quarter of their game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at SHI Stadium on October 19, 2024 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Getty Images)
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It Gets Worse
Not has UCLA not been really good for decades, and fan attendance has fallen off a cliff, but now by firing their head coach after just three games into the season, they open the door to the team’s roster now literally falling apart. In this new era of NIL money and the transfer portal after a coach is fired (a) any player can enter their name in the transfer portal for thirty (30) days and start talking to other programs, and (b) because the team has only played three (3) games any player can elect not to play from this point on and redshirt and preserve an entire season of eligibility.
PASADENA, CA – SEPTEMBER 19: UCLA Bruins head coach Rick Neuheisel looks on from the sideline against the Kansas State Wildcats at the Rose Bowl on September 19, 2009 in Pasadena, California. UCLA defeated Kansas State 23-9. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
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Former UCLA player and head coach (2008-2011) Rick Neuheisel in a recent interview spelled it all out saying: “They’re going to be receiving calls from all sorts of other schools wanting to know who their agent is, so they can talk about the potential of leaving now or at least stopping your season,” Neuheisel said. “…Basically putting your career on timeout so you can let the games go and you can transfer when the transfer portal opens in January. The transfer portal for anybody who loses their head coach opens for 30 days immediately so they can do that,” Neuheisel said. “So they want to finish the quarter of school at UCLA…Which is problematic for making a decision this early. Because you can literally find yourself without a football team. Not enough guys to play.”
Exhibit A: Quarterback Nico Iamaleava
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – SEPTEMBER 06: Nico Iamaleava #9 of the UCLA Bruins warms up prior to a game against the UNLV Rebels at Allegiant Stadium on September 06, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images)
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As of September 18, no players had publicly announced their intentions to leave the program but the focus will be on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the number one transfer portal player from 2024. He left Tennessee after an NIL dispute and his time at UCLA so far has been a disaster. Four days after his coach’s firing Iamaleava was practicing with the team. His presence in practice suggests that he intends to still play for the team….for now.
FInding The Right Head Coach
Can UCLA make the right hire and reverse decades of mediocrity? The school has much to offer: One of the top universities in the country (ranked the #1 public university in 2025 by US News and World Report), with a beautiful campus located in West Los Angeles close to the beach. Will Martin Jarmond, the new athletic director, spend the money? Fired Head Coach Deshaun Foster, who prior to getting the job had no head coaching experience, was still being paid over $3 million dollars a year. A top coach today with a winning resume will command 2-3 times that amount.
Jarmond probably wishes he could solve this problem tomorrow. But to do it right he likely needs to run a process that takes the rest of this season leaving the team in limbo with assistant coaches running the team for now.
Welcome UCLA to college football 2025: The Wild West.
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