Hes been an underdog his whole life: Meet UCLA

The Fresno State soccer gamers needed to be heard after so a lot frustration, so a lot uncertainty.

A season that had began with their coach leaving the job because of health issues, only to deteriorate additional with 4 losses in six video games during a maddening midseason stretch, was now back firmly on the upswing.

Their non permanent coach having steadied them through every problem, including his own unsure future, those gamers yearned to protect what might need been the best half of a burdensome season.

“We want Skip!” the gamers chanted in the locker room last November after a victory over Colorado State that made them eligible for a bowl recreation. “We want Skip!”

Tim Skipper, the interim coach who was virtually a Fresno State lifer after having starred as a speck of a linebacker for the Bulldogs before going on to coach for them in varied capacities, was making the best of what he had to work with once more.

It wasn’t the first or last time he can be needed in that capability. The Bulldogs had tapped him to serve as the appearing coach for a bowl recreation the earlier season after coach Jeff Tedford’s first bout of health points, and now UCLA is popping to Skipper to lead its workforce after the dismissal of coach DeShaun Foster on Sunday after the Bruins’ 0-3 start.

It’s an particularly tough spot given Skipper’s ties to his longtime pal, who employed him before this season as a particular assistant to the top coach and once called himself “an honorary Skipper.” Skipper’s father, Jim, was Foster’s operating backs coach with the Carolina Panthers. Skipper’s brother, Kelly, had been Foster’s operating backs coach at UCLA.

“You know, DeShaun is kind of like family,” Jim Skipper said. “Tim’s got his work cut out, he knows that. But he’s up for the challenge. He’s been an underdog his whole life.”

This could be Tim Skipper’s biggest check, far higher than the six consecutive performs inside the three-yard line that the center linebacker helped Fresno State stymie Ohio State during a goal-line stand in 2000. Among the most important difficulties dealing with Skipper are rallying workforce morale and holding the roster intact after a winless start that led to the firing of the coach who introduced these gamers into this system. There’s also an offense and a protection that rank among the worst in the nation and a persistent penalty drawback.

“I know from the outside, people may look and say, the talent’s not changing, this imposing schedule isn’t changing, how can anyone expect different results?” said Paul Loeffler, Fresno State’s radio play-by-play announcer. “But I would say he’s a guy who can foster belief in young men because he believes. He’s relentlessly positive and it’s not fake positivity.

“There’s a gravitas there that I think the players would buy into and as hard as it’s going to be for him because of how close he and DeShaun have been for a long time, I think the way he attacks this opportunity will probably be colored by his experience last year.”

It was straightforward for Fresno State to flip to Skipper in July 2024 given his efficiency in guiding the Bulldogs to a 37-10 victory over New Mexico State in the New Mexico Bowl at the end of the earlier season. The bowl triumph was welcome aid from a three-game dropping streak and worries about Tedford after the coach stepped apart to handle health points.

After the sport, Skipper devoted the victory to his boss.

“He did a wonderful job getting our team prepared and ready for the bowl,” said Terry Tumey, the previous UCLA nostril guard who appointed Skipper as interim coach in December 2023 when Tumey was Fresno State’s athletic director. “This is a much larger stage, of course, but it’s not a foreign proposition for him to be in an interim situation and kind of taking over and kind of keeping things at bay as the administration figures out its next direction.”

Less than a yr in the past, Skipper made Fresno State critically contemplate giving him the Bulldogs’ everlasting job. The workforce acquired off to a 5-3 start before second-half slipups against Hawaii and Air Force have been adopted by a loss to UCLA in which the Bulldogs managed just a discipline purpose after halftime.

Four days later, Fresno State athletic director Garrett Klassy employed USC linebackers coach Matt Entz as the Bulldogs’ new coach. Skipper finally discovered a touchdown spot on Foster’s workers.

“He’s just somebody that’s very knowledgeable and he knows me,” Foster said in July. “So it’s just somebody that I know I can trust, and I’m just excited to be able to add somebody with that type of knowledge to our team.”

Given a new, sudden alternative as Foster’s alternative, Skipper, 47, would possibly use any lingering disappointment from his last interim stop as motivation.

“Knowing Tim,” Tumey said, “he’s going to want to prove that he has what it takes to be a head coach, whether it’s this opportunity or somewhere else, and so he has something to prove too. I think our entire program at UCLA, we all have something to prove.”

Skipper’s prolonged teaching profession has included stops at Western New Mexico, Sacramento State, Colorado State, Florida, Nevada Las Vegas and Central Michigan, in addition to a number of stints at Fresno State. He’s largely coached on protection but has spent 4 seasons as a operating backs coach.

Scheduled to meet with the UCLA media for the first time on Wednesday morning, Skipper is understood for a magnetic character that permits him to shortly construct trust among gamers. He’s already instituted one significant change in permitting images and videos to be taken at practices after his predecessor had barred that customized.

“He’s so genuine, he’s so engaging, he’s got a million-dollar smile and he’s just present,” Loeffler said, “so I think he’s got a gift in terms of connecting.”

But he’s no softie. Pat Hill, the legendary former Fresno State coach recognized for backing up his “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” mantra with victories over major-conference opponents, said his onetime star defender who still ranks as the second-leading tackler in college historical past will rise to his latest problem.

“When he walks into a room, take away the stature — he’s a small guy, he’s 5 feet 8 — but he commands the room and he will get the respect of the team immediately,” Hill said. “I guarantee the team will play with more emotion and they will play harder now.

“I don’t know what the wins and losses will be with the people they have, I really don’t know enough about it, but from a standpoint of leadership and getting a message to the team, he’ll be outstanding.”

Tumey said the expectations going into UCLA’s Big Ten opener against Northwestern on Sept. 27 needs to be for Skipper to stabilize this system, make sure the Bruins are aggressive in convention play and assist his gamers.

But what if UCLA begins unexpectedly rolling off one victory after another?

“Hey, stranger things have happened,” Tumey said. “I was a part of that 0-3-1 football team [in 1983] that ended up going to the Rose Bowl. So you never know.”