In Reply to: Has Foster been officially hired by Raiders yet? posted by BruinMIM on February 10, 2024 at 22:11:34
Theory - about the UCLA hiring process more than anything -
in the past we've tended toward insular hires - has to be someone from the UCLA family somehow. Both FB and BB. (Remember the search that came down to three Bruins - looking for the best Bruin as opposed to the best HC candidate and we wound up with a whole bunch of nothing?)
We broke that with Mora (which seemed really good for a while and then not so much at the end) and then turned to Troy Aikman and Casey Wasserman among others and went after the experienced guy who was widely believed to be the best candidate out there. That didn't turn out so well.
They clearly are working off a list they had already compiled and are doing their due diligence on a significant number of candidates - credit to them for that.
But in the end, i will be surprised if the new HC does not turn out to be someone with existing UCLA ties. Had the coaching musical chairs not resulted in Fisch to Washington and then Brennan to Arizona, i'd have thought either might have been a very likely choice in the end. As it is, names like White and Rees seem to me to be likely finalists - at least.
But just thinking a return to looking inward might not be a result that will feel right to the administration. Jarmond's national experience could be a mitigating factor but i bet consultations with key donors will be part of the process as goal one no matter what the result of the search has to be rebuilding the foundation of the program and, in today's college football world, that means starting with finances (and in our case then focusing on recruiting, both HS and through the portal)