UCLA fired football coach DeShaun Foster on Sunday after the school’s first 0-3 start since 2019, and Virginia Tech fired coach Brent Pry after the program stumbled to its first 0-3 start since 1987.

UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond announced the Foster move two days after the Bruins lost to New Mexico 35-10 on Friday, their second straight loss to a Mountain West opponent.

Tim Skipper will serve as interim coach for the rest of the season, which includes games against three highly ranked Big Ten opponents. Skipper had been special assistant to Foster and served as Fresno State’s interim coach last year.

“I want to extend my sincere appreciation to DeShaun for his contributions to UCLA football over the course of many years, first as a Hall of Fame student-athlete, then as an assistant coach and finally as head coach,” Jarmond said in a statement. “He was named to this role at a challenging time of year, on the cusp of a move to a new conference, and he embraced it, putting his heart into moving the program forward. His legacy and love for this university are firmly established.”

Foster was 5-10 since taking over the program from Chip Kelly in February 2024. The Bruins were beaten by Utah in their opener and by UNLV a week ago. They trailed at halftime in all three losses.

Foster was asked Friday if he was still the person for the job and replied: “Most definitely. Because I can get these boys to play.”

However, even the arrival of quarterback Nico Iamaleava via the transfer portal couldn’t save Foster. The sophomore left Tennessee after leading the Volunteers to the College Football Playoff last season.

Iamaleava defended Foster after Friday’s loss, saying: “We’re not executing as players. It all falls back on the players.”

During Foster’s first season, the Bruins finished 5-7 after a 1-5 start. He had been the program’s running backs coach before Jarmond promoted him.

Foster was a star running back for the Bruins during his college career, including a four-touchdown performance against rival USC in 1998, before playing six seasons in the NFL.

“Serving as the head coach at UCLA, my beloved alma mater, has been the honor of a lifetime,” Foster said in a statement. “While I am deeply disappointed that we were unable to achieve the success that our players, fans and university deserve, I am grateful for the opportunity to have led this program.”

The school said the terms of Foster’s contract will be honored by UCLA athletics, exclusively using department-generated funds. A national search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

The Bruins are off until visiting Northwestern on Sept. 27.

Virginia Tech: ‘Necessary’ to move on from Brent Pry

Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry looks on after a loss to Old Dominion on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, in Blacksburg, Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons)

Virginia Tech announced Pry’s firing a day after the Hokies fell behind 31-0 on the way to a 45-26 home loss to Old Dominion.

In a statement, school President Tim Sands said the change was “necessary” due to on-field results described as “not acceptable” as Pry reached his fourth season.

That included giving up 65 unanswered points over more than 70 minutes of game action during last week’s home loss to Vanderbilt and into Saturday night’s loss to Old Dominion, which beat Pry’s Hokies in his coaching debut in 2022 and again in what became his finale.

“Blacksburg will always hold a special place in our hearts,” Pry said in his own statement. “We leave with wonderful memories and lifelong friendships, and we will forever be cheering for the Hokies.”

Offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery will serve as interim coach, while Sands pointed to a need to “develop a financial, organizational and leadership plan that will rapidly position (the program) to be competitive with the best” in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“The new framework for college sports will be fully established for next season, so this is the time to make a major move,” Sands said.

This is Virginia Tech’s first 0-3 start since the first year of Frank Beamer’s 29-year run that put the Hokies on the map nationally, notably with a trip to the national championship game behind star freshman quarterback Michael Vick in 1999 among Beamer’s 23 bowl appearances.

Beamer’s run ended in 2015 and the Hokies played for the ACC title a year later, but otherwise the program has struggled for traction and hasn’t cracked the AP Top 25 in four years.

The school hired Pry in 2021 after eight seasons as the defensive coordinator at Penn State. But the former Virginia Tech graduate assistant under Beamer went 16-24 with the Hokies, including 10-13 in conference play.

He signed a six-year, $27.5 million contract at the time of his hiring. He is making $4.75 million this season and the school would owe Pry a roughly $6 million buyout.

Some pressure already had been building on Pry after the Hokies went 0-5 in one-possession games in 2024 despite leading in the fourth quarter by a touchdown in three and being tied in another with 4½ minutes left. That had Pry pushing the plan of building a “more mentally and physically tough” team to finish better.

Instead, the Hokies avoided the problem entirely by losing by bigger margins.

The 24-11 loss to South Carolina in Atlanta to open the season was an understandable stumble against a touted Southeastern Conference opponent. But the next two games were catastrophes, coming on the Hokies’ home field.

First came last weekend’s 44-20 loss to Vanderbilt in their home opener, with the Commodores outscoring the Hokies 34-0 after halftime in an embarrassing finish. Things got much worse against Old Dominion, which led 28-0 by halftime in a performance devoid of defensive stops or sustained offensive drives — a combination that had fans booing heavily and flocking early to the Lane Stadium exits.

By the time Virginia Tech finally scored a third-quarter touchdown, the Hokies had gone nearly five full quarters without a point.

Athletic director Whit Babcock hired Pry in part to follow Beamer’s philosophy of recruiting in-state prospects, a strategy that worked well during Beamer’s long and successful run. But only three of the Hokies’ 22 starters in the Vanderbilt game were from Virginia. Overall, just six of the starters were high school players recruited by Pry, with the remainder arriving as transfers.

Virginia Tech went just 1-12 under Pry in games decided by one-possession margins, while the Hokies haven’t beaten a Power Four team in a nonconference game since 2017 — a run of 15 consecutive losses with the Vanderbilt loss.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/14/ucla-fires-coach-deshaun-foster-after-0-3-season-start/