UCLA decided a coaching change was necessary over the weekend following an 0-3 start to DeShaun Foster's second season at the helm. He was 5-10 overall after a 5-7 debut season last fall.
The change came after a lopsided home loss to New Mexico, led by first-year head Lobos head coach Jason Eck.
Tim Skipper, who had been serving in a special assistant role to Foster, was tabbed as the interim head coaching role. The opportunity marked the second time in two seasons Skipper has been tasked with that acting head coach role, filling that spot at Fresno State last season following the departure of Jeff Tedford in July due to health reasons.
As Skipper looks to retool the Bruins, he's decided to make a coordinator change.
The program and defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe have decided to part ways, Skipper shared today.
A few seasons ago, the UCLA defense was a strength, but through the first three games of the 2025 season it became clear that was no longer the case.
The Bruins opened the year with a 43-10 loss to Utah, followed by back-to-back losses to Group of Five programs from the Mountain West conference.
Week two saw them lose to UNLV in a 30-23 game that took place in Las Vegas before the most recent 35-10 loss to UNM.
The defense was giving up 431 yards per game during the 3-game winless skid, ranking last among Big Ten teams and 118 nationally.
In other key defensive metrics, the defense ranked 134th in run defense (allowing 244 yards on the ground per game), 122nd in scoring defense (36 points per game), and really struggled to get off the field on third down, ranking next-to-last nationally by allowing opponents to convert over 62% of their third down attempts, and ranking near the bottom nationally in opponent 4th down conversion attempts as well (67%).
Malloe, who spent much of his time working with the defensive line as an assistant coach, served as defensive coordinator previously at Yale (FCS - CT) and was a co-coordinator on staff at Washington for a few seasons before taking a position at UCLA in 2022.
He's also coordinated special teams at a variety of stops including the major college level at Hawaii and UCLA in 2022.
Moving forward, the defensive coordinator responsibilities will be a collaborative effort, Skipper added.
UCLA, who will honor Foster's buyout outlined in his contract by paying him more than $5 million, has a week off before heading to Evanston to take on Northwestern next weekend. Their remaining schedule includes home games against #2 Penn State, Maryland, Nebraska, and Washington, with road trips to Michigan State, #19 Indiana, #1 Ohio State, before taking on USC.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.