DeShaun Foster is the first UCLA head football coach hired without previous head coaching experience since Karl Dorrell. Dorell like Foster was also a former player at UCLA. Bruins fans need to hope that it works out a lot better this time around.
Dorell did have a strong season in 2005 with a 10-2 record and a win in the Sun Bowl, but over his five seasons, he went 1-3 in bowl games, and DeWayne Walker who replaced Dorrell ahead of the Las Vegas Bowl in 2007 after Dorrell was fired, also lost that game.
One of Dorrell’s biggest problems was coaching in the shadow of Pete Carroll at USC. Even in Dorrell’s best year, 2005, USC was the No. 1 team in the country and beat the Bruins 66-19, the largest margin of victory in that rivalry since 1929.
Dorrell finished his tenure with a 35-27 record at UCLA and was replaced by his former teammate, Rick Neuheisel.