LOS ANGELES — They're bad. They're really bad. They're, like, 0-12 bad. The Bad News Bruins are a quarter of their way to completing a winless season, and who's to say they won't do what no UCLA team has done in more than a century and lose every game they play? They lack discipline, they can't tackle, they can't score and their coach sounds as if he has no idea how to extract them from what ...

UCLA head coach Deshaun Foster walks off the field after the Bruins' 35-10 loss against New Mexico at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 12, 2025, in Pasadena, California.

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LOS ANGELES — They're bad.

They're really bad.

They're, like, 0-12 bad.

The Bad News Bruins are a quarter of their way to completing a winless season, and who's to say they won't do what no UCLA team has done in more than a century and lose every game they play?

They lack discipline, they can't tackle, they can't score and their coach sounds as if he has no idea how to extract them from what he acknowledged was the lowest point in his decades associated with their program.

DeShaun Foster once again looked completely out of his depth on Friday night when UCLA was humiliated in a 35-10 defeat to 15 1/2 -point underdog New Mexico, and now the question isn't if the second-year coach will be fired but when.

Foster said he "most definitely" still felt he was the right coach to lead the program but he failed to make a persuasive case as to why that was the case.

"Because I can get these boys to play," Foster said.

Did Foster feel as overmatched?

"Nope," he replied. "Not at all."

Except Foster looks overmatched. He sounds overmatched.

He has preached discipline to his players, but he either doesn't know how to effectively deliver the message or teach them to exercise greater self-control. The Bruins committed 13 penalties during their loss to New Mexico, which cost them 116 yards. A week earlier in a defeat to UNLV, the Bruins were flagged for 14 penalties.

Foster didn't sound as if he had any solutions.

"It blows my mind," he said.

UCLA's run defense, or lack thereof, was equally mind blowing. New Mexico rushed for 298 yards, and that was with starting running back Scottre Humphrey playing only the first quarter because of an injury.

Foster pointed to how the Bruins won four of their last six games last year as a reason he believed they would turn around their season.

However, racking up personal fouls and allowing opponents to run all over you aren't trademarks of winning football, and considering the magnitude of the problems this year, it'd be naive to think they could be remedied any time soon.

Of course, ultimately responsible for this entire mess is Martin Jarmond, UCLA's bumbling athletic director.

Jarmond was the one who refused to fire the Bruins' previous coach, Chip Kelly, after several mediocre seasons. Jarmond was the one who set a self-imposed 96-hour deadline to find a new coach when Kelly suddenly departed the program to become Ohio State's offensive coordinator. Jarmond was the one who hired the inexperienced Foster, who could end up being to UCLA what Gerry Faust was to Notre Dame.

Jarmond hasn't just failed to revive UCLA football. He's bludgeoned the program to the brink of death.

Jarmond didn't attend the postgame news conference on Friday, leaving it to Foster to tell fans why they should return to the Rose Bowl for future games.

"If you're a real Bruin," Foster said, "you'll still be a fan."

UCLA can buy out the remaining three-plus years of Foster's contract for upwards of $5 million, and Jarmond might as well be swept out with him whenever that happens, whether it's during this season or after. With his track record, who could count on Jarmond to find the coach who will elevate the Bruins from college football purgatory?

By now, it's clear Foster won't be that coach.

The Bruins have not led at any point of any game this season. They were never ahead of Utah, which blew them out in their season opener. They were never ahead of the two Mountain West Conference teams they played in their two most recent games.

UCLA remains the only Big Ten team without a win, and the Bruins very well could have an 0-fer season.

Foster's team has a couple of extremely beatable opponents on its schedule in Northwestern and Maryland. Then again, as these early-season games have proven, UCLA is also extremely beatable — maybe even historically beatable.