UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster was one of the voices from Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon.
Foster spoke on the main stage for just over 10 minutes, which was considerably shorter than the SEC coaches during SEC Media Days last week in Atlanta.
The big story around the Bruins’ program is the acquisition of former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava from the transfer portal during the spring.
Foster didn’t talk much about Iamaleava during his opening statement. He mentioned that Iamaleava was one of the three Bruins players who were brought to media days and that he chose to come back home to “help build something special at UCLA.”
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Foster was only asked about Iamaleava once during the question portion of the interview, which came at the very end. The second-year coach was asked about bringing Iamaleava in and what he has done in the locker room to rally the team this offseason.
“The arm strength is something that you see off, just from watching him play at all,” Foster said. “But he’s just a talent. It’s not anything that I saw him do last season, it’s more of what I had seen him do all the way up. Him being a local quarterback, I have seen him play a few times. And he’s played with a lot of players that are on our team. So there’s a lot of familiarity there. We’re just excited to have a playoff quarterback. Somebody that was able to lead his team to the playoffs. They might not have gotten the outcome that they wanted, but he still was able to play. He showed how tough he was in that game. Just being able to come back home, be comfortable, and be able to be in a familiar environment, I think sky’s the limit. So we’re excited about this.”
Foster spoke to the media around 3:00 p.m. ET. Iamaleava, meanwhile, is set to speak to the media for the first time since his transfer around 7:00 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more on what Iamaleava says about his departure from Tennessee, if anything.
