UCLA’s Deshaun Foster doubles down on media restrictions: ‘We’re trying to win games’

Deshaun Foster isn’t interested in a lot of transparency coming out of his program.

As far as the UCLA Bruins head football coach is concerned, who needs the media? Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, the former Carolina Panthers running back doubled down on his program’s restrictive policies that limit player interviews and block media access to practice viewing.

College football coaches being paranoid about media access isn’t anything new. Televised spring games are relics of another era, and apparently, so is media viewing practice. But the thing is, Foster isn’t breaking new ground either, as Florida State’s Mike Norvell eliminated media access to practice earlier this offseason.

Awful Announcing’s Michael Grant took Norvell to task for those restrictive policies, arguing they don’t serve the sport. Foster clearly doesn’t care who they serve, as evidenced by his recent media session, transcribed by Benjamin Royer.

UCLA football head coach DeShaun Foster’s back-and-forth from Wednesday’s practice media scrum on restricting media access policies: pic.twitter.com/vVBo1atmYh

— Benjamin Royer (@thebenroyer) August 20, 2025

“You guys film our practice and put it online,” said Foster. “If I was an opponent for another team, I’d look right at your guys’ stuff and see what’s going on. So for them to get a beat on (offensive coordinator) Tino [Sunseri] or depth, or anything that’s going on, that’s why it’s closed.”

In my experience covering Temple and later Clemson, media viewing periods were limited to the first and last 15 minutes of practice. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it gave us a chance to see who was healthy and participating. Foster won’t even allow that, and he doesn’t want his players talking to reporters either.

“That’s the same thing,” Foster said when asked about a lapse in player interviews. “Because if they come over and interview, then you guys are gonna ask me, ‘Are they a starter? Are they this? Are they that?'”

God forbid a head coach answers questions about his own players. When pressed further about allowing select player interviews for human interest stories, Foster remained unmoved.

“It’s tough, but we’re trying to win games,” he said.

That approach won’t win over many fans, but Foster insists he isn’t worried about marketing his team, essentially delegating that responsibility to the media, who, thanks to his restrictions, can’t properly cover the program anyway.

“I’m not worried about the marketing,” Foster continued. “Because what marketing does, if you win games, you’re marketed. So, we’re going to go out there and focus on winning games. That’s why we left for training camp. But if I was just trying to just let everything be open, we could have just stayed right here and do that. We’re going to work and go away and come back and everything’s going to be fine.”

Foster’s bunker mentality might make sense if UCLA were defending a championship, but this is a program coming off a 5-7 season in its first year in the Big Ten. Building goodwill with fans and media should be a priority, not an afterthought. Instead, Foster seems content to alienate the very people who could help generate interest in his rebuild.