DeShaun Foster of UCLA football will teach running backs for the Las Vegas Raiders.
NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo revealed on Friday afternoon that DeShaun Foster, the running backs coach and assistant head coach for UCLA football, will be joining Antonio Pierce’s staff as the running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. Foster is already the fifth coach on the Bruins’ staff to depart from Westwood this summer.
Foster began his UCLA Athletics career as a running back for the team from 1998 to 2001. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022. He then played for the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers for six years in the NFL before coming back to UCLA in 2013 as a volunteer assistant coach.
Foster left the Bruins after three years to become the running backs coach at Texas Tech in 2016, then returned to UCLA as the running backs coach for the year 2017.
After the 2022 season, Foster was elevated to associate head coach while keeping his role as running backs coach. UCLA’s rushing offense has finished in the top 16 nationally the last three years, and a Bruin running back has been taken in the NFL Draft the last four years.
The Raiders hired Kliff Kingsbury as their offensive coordinator after at least two interviews with coach Chip Kelly, according to NFL source Ian Rapoport, one day before Foster’s hiring was announced. Along with Foster, additional UCLA coaches who have taken up new roles since the conclusion of the 2023 regular season are director of leadership Ken Niumatalolo, tight ends coach Jeff Faris, quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson, and defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. Niumatalolo, who will now be the head coach of San Jose State, was supposed to replace Faris as the tight ends coach in 2024.
Before they enter their inaugural Big Ten season, the Bruins must fill the voids left by Foster, Faris, and Niumatalolo, even if Lynn and Gunderson have been replaced.
