Letters to Sports: UCLA fans aren’t happy with state of football program

Well, it is starting to appear that we are on the way to another in a series of mediocre football seasons at my alma mater UCLA.

I am now officially in the “I don’t care about UCLA Football anymore” camp. I graduated from UCLA in 1975 and while every once in a while UCLA will have a somewhat successful season, the best they seem to be able to do is be invited to a second-tier bowl game. The College Football Playoff? Forget about it.

Coach DeShaun Foster is very clearly in way over his head. I predict he will be gone after this season.

Bruce Dunklin
Thousand Oaks

It has to be painfully obvious that the DeShaun Foster experiment at head coach is a dismal failure. The loss to UNLV was not just embarrassing but shameful. It was once said that Foster was Karl Dorrell 2.0, but that is unfair. Dorrell had a 10-win season and beat USC. Coach “We’re Close” Foster is in way over his head. His team is undisciplined and unprepared. This clueless performance will lead to a completely empty Rose Bowl and eventual desertion of NIL sponsors. What is the athletic department going to do when we lose to New Mexico and go 0-12 for the year?

Thomas Auyong
Diamond Bar

DeShaun Foster has to be the worst head coach in UCLA history. If a team is a reflection of their coach, then this is the worst UCLA team ever. Does the team have a weight program? They are getting pushed around out there and it’s only going to get uglier. We are going to lose 100-0 to Ohio State.

Ed Villanueva
Chino Hills

UCLA fell for the third consecutive game to open the season, with their drubbing at the hands of New Mexico. Maybe it’s time for AD Martin Jarmond to consider dropping the football program to a lower division, or just dropping football completely (the latter might help balance the athletic budget). Either way, coach DeShaun Foster and the Bruins are in for a long season.

Chris Sorce
Fountain Valley

My 98-year-old father and I are 25-year UCLA football season-ticket holders. We love our Bruin football, but let’s face facts. When our AD, Martin Jarmond, hired coach DeShaun Foster, he looked at us with a straight face and told us that they had interviewed upward of 40 candidates for the head coaching position and that Foster was the best of the group. A man with no offensive, defensive or head-coaching experience.

It sadly is now painfully obvious that Jarmond and Foster should be replaced with more experienced and qualified candidates.

Christopher Armen
Woodland Hills

Can we just jump-start the process and start on the Dodger Stadium statue for Clayton Kershaw right now?

And all the letter writers that wrote telling him to give it up to avoid future “embarrassment“ can give it the first polish.

Jeff Heister
Chatsworth

Dave Roberts’ problem is he thinks he has closers to bring in. He does not.

Dodger fans bleed Dodger Blue, but we’re all hemorrhaging right now.

Nancy Christmas
Santa Monica

With a fresh abundance of top starters and the bullpen in tatters, the Dodgers can keep hoping something changes (against all evidence), risk putting starters in unknown bullpen roles OR be the innovative team they claim to be.

Tampa Bay revolutionized the concept of openers and bullpen games. The Dodgers need to take the step with something they’ve only dabbled in: “dual starters.”

Imagine four innings of Shohei Ohtani followed by five innings of Blake Snell, or five from Clayton Kershaw followed by four from Emmet Sheehan (whose stuff will look even more electric after Kersh’s 75- to 90-mph wizardry). And it even satisfies Doc’s R/L, L/R jones so everyone’s happy.

The true bullpen arms will be better rested to be lights out when needed. And hopefully we can get Roki Sasaki somewhere in there too.

Maddox Rees
Santa Barbara

As I watched the U.S. Open the last couple of weeks with the incredible technology of calling balls in and out, I again wondered why baseball remains in the 20th century with its continued use of umpires to call balls and strikes.

Mark Kaiserman
Santa Monica

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