Wednesday was DeShaun Foster’s opportunity to introduce himself to the Big Ten. However, the first-year UCLA Bruins head coach struggled mightily through his opening statement during the conference’s media days.
Foster, 44, has never been a head coach, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in delivering an opening statement to a large contingency in Indianapolis. He’s undoubtedly already met with the local media in Los Angeles and seemed to handle his introductory press conference quite well, but Wednesday, well, that’s a different story.
The saving grace for Foster here is this isn’t his first introduction to his players, but it was to the rest of the conference media. He’s tasked with leading his alma mater in its inaugural season in the Big Ten, and the Bruins are likely hoping it’ll be a little less painful than Foster’s opening remarks were.
It wasn’t like pulling teeth; it was more like you felt second-hand embarrassment, wanting to hide your face with a pillow instead.
“I’m happy to be here,” he began. “I’m glad to be a part of this great conference. Finally putting two great emblems together — UCLA and the Big Ten. We’re a school that’s won, what, 123 championships? So, this fits with us being right in this conference. Football-wise, we’re just excited. I’m sure you guys don’t know too much about UCLA, our football program, but we’re in L.A.”
No kidding.
“It’s us and USC,” Foster added.
For the next 20 seconds, he seemed to lose his train of thought and chuckled when he could not get the words out.
“I’m just basically excited; that’s it,” he said.
The excitement is palpable; you can literally feel it through the screen. Seriously, is there no one in UCLA’s PR staff who could have prepared Foster to make a 90-second opening statement better? How do you not give him cue cards, flashcards, or maybe a sticky note with some bullet points? Anything?
Sure, he seems better suited to answer questions in a Q&A format, and the remaining eight minutes went on without much of a blip. But it seemed like he had just no idea what to say. Hopefully, that’s not a theme for him delivering opening statements to the media moving forward or a theme for his team’s opening drives this season.
[Big Ten]
