Game Film: DeShaun Foster
A Lesson in Preparedness from UCLA Head Football Coach
Big thanks to Scott Charland for suggesting the video for today's post.
If you have any videos of coaches you’d like to see featured on this page, please send them my way.
The question we’re answering today is…
How could DeShaun Foster have done it better?
DeShaun was named head coach of the UCLA Bruins' this past February.
Here he is at Big Ten media day making an opening statement before taking questions from the media. For additional context, this will be the first season UCLA plays in the Big Ten.
Please watch from 0:00 - 1:22:
Three things stand out to me:
We have certain expectations for how a head coach should speak.
He didn’t prepare an opening statement.
The lack of feedback from his “audience” ultimately derailed him.
Unfortunately for Coach Foster, this clip went viral and has become the focus of conversation around him/UCLA Football.
Here’s what he had to say about it in subsequent interviews:
I'm just not a rah, rah guy. You don't get any points for being rah-rah, but I played football. I didn't start coaching at 20. I played football in college at a high level. I got drafted playing football in the NFL for a few years at a high level and then I decided to coach. My path is way different than a lot of these other people that are coaching and up here doing all that stuff. Just like when I'm recruiting, it's not a pitch. Do you understand? I'm not a car salesman. […] So it's just tough for me. I'm not a big talker.
I get what he’s saying, but at this level, aren’t coaching and talking one in the same?
He’s not just a coach.
He’s a highly-visible representative of UCLA athletics and their football program.
Is this media day opening statement not reflective of the amount of thought he’s given to what his team’s identity will be in the Big Ten conference?
Is this media day opening statement not reflective of his understanding of and appreciation for how powerful his presence is in influencing the narrative around UCLA Football?
I’m not saying he hasn’t thought about his team’s identity in the Big Ten conference or that he doesn’t understand and appreciate the power of his presence, but his inability to articulate those answers invites these types of questions.
Maybe I’m thinking too seriously here, but would it have harmed Coach Foster to give this moment more credit than it deserved? I think not.
The lesson: Coaches need public speaking skills.
So, how could Foster have done it better?
He could have (more fully) prepared his remarks.
Nervousness and preparedness go together. The more prepared you are, the less nervous you’ll be.
This isn’t news to you. You know that performance is a product of preparation.
Coach Foster isn’t an amateur. He’s been exposed to the media before, so we have to assume he had good reason for not (more fully) preparing an opening statement for this event.
For the sake of this post, let’s speculate that his reason was because he believed he knew UCLA and his role well enough to speak about them off-the-cuff.
This is a common mistake we make going into public speaking opportunities.
We don’t consider how the situation/environment will impact our ability to organize and deliver a clear and effective message.
Regardless of how well you know what you’re talking about, if the public speaking situation/environment triggers your nervous system, your focus will move from your thinking brain to your reptilian brain as you figure out how to manage the perceived threat.
You will struggle to articulate your message, just as Coach Foster did.
In this scenario, having a prepared message — not scripted, but points organized into a logical structure — would allow you to work through that moment of anxiety without losing track of your message, and ultimately the moment.
What’s an example message structure Coach Foster could have used for his opening statement?
👉 What? So What? Now what? 👈
What: Introduce your main point/conclusion.
So What: Explain why is your “What” is important for your audience to know/do.
Now What: Explain what comes next.
This could have been as simple as him writing on a piece of paper:
What: We’re finally putting two great emblems together — UCLA and the Big Ten.
So What: (a) We’ve won 123 championships (b) Moving into the Big Ten will give us an opportunity to continue competing at the highest level (c) Both our student-athletes and our fans will benefit from the increased visibility the Big Ten provides.
Now What: We’re excited for the upcoming season when we can showcase our team’s talent in this great conference.
Boom! A clear and concise message that follows a logical flow.
Even better, this approach doesn’t tell Coach Foster exactly what to say. It reminds him of the points he wants to make, and he gets to choose how to articulate each of them.
The problem is see is that too many people forego preparing a message because they confuse “prepare” with “write a script.”
In my world, those two things are not the same.
In fact, in the seven years I’ve been teaching and coaching this stuff, I’ve only coached one person to script their message.
If I had to prepare a script each time I had a public speaking opportunity, I wouldn’t do it either. It’s time-consuming and, for most of us, doesn’t feel like a natural way to speak.
That’s it, folks.
There’s more I could say about Coach Foster’s speaking, but I’m not going to because they wouldn’t have been an issue if he had come more prepared.
Confidence comes from being prepared. — John Wooden
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Thanks for reading!
Jenny