2020 UCLA Football Fall Preview: Did Chip Make Enough Changes to the Coaching Staff?
This year's coaching changes came on the defensive side of the ball, but did Chip Kelly make enough changes to improve the Bruins in 2020?
UCLA Defensive Coordinator Jerry Azzinaro returns in 2020 despite having one of the worst defenses in the country. (Photo Credit: Joe Piechowski)
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We’ve, obviously, known that eventually college sports will return, but like so many other parts of our lives pre-COVID-19 no one quite knew when. Admittedly, we may not be any closer to that return now than we were at the beginning of April, but the difference now is that it, at least, looks like there will be an attempt to restart college sports for the Fall season.
The Pac-12 took a big step towards that last Friday when they released the revised 2020 schedule.
And, so, while no one knows how far into the season we may or may not get, we officially kickoff our 2019 UCLA Football Fall Preview series this morning with a look at the 2020 UCLA football coaching staff.
Most of Chip Kelly’s coaching staff from last season is back, despite the fact that at least one coach shouldn’t be. Let’s first look at who won’t be returning.
Who’s Gone
There are just two coaches who won’t be returning this season. They are Vincent Oghobaase and Paul Rhoades. Oghobaase coached the defensive line last season. Oghobaase left Westwood to become the defensive line coach at Boston College. Rhoades was Kelly’s defensive backs coach the past two seasons. Rhoades left the Bruins to become the defensive coordinator at Arizona. For some reason, Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin seems to like hiring coaches who didn’t do a very good job while they were with the Bruins. Of course, that’s because Sumlin previously hired Noel and Taylor Mazzone as well as Demetrice Martin.
Who’s New
Of course, Chip Kelly needed to replace those two coaches and he did so first by hiring Brian Norwood as the team's assistant head coach/passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach to replace Rhoades. Then, he hired Johnny Nansen as the defensive line coach.
Norwood comes to the Bruins from Navy. Before heading back to Annapolis, Norwood was the co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State and he helped the Wildcats jump from last in the Big 12 in pass defense to fourth by reducing from 309.1 passing yards per game to just 245.8 passing yards per game, which was the fewest passing yards per game for K-State in five years.
Nansen, on the other hand, only has to travel to the Westside after spending the past six years coaching crosstown rival Southern Cal. Nansen has a track record of developing his players into some of the top players in Pac-12. When he coached running backs at Washington and Southern Cal, he helped Bishop Sankey, who had back-to-back top 20 finishes in rushing yards, and Ronald Jones, who finished 11th in the nation. Meanwhile, when he switched to coaching linebackers at Southern Cal, Cameron Smith finished 2018 15th in the nation in solo tackles. He’s also known for his recruiting prowess. He was named the 2017 Pac-12 Recruiter of the Year by 247Sports. Hopefully, Nansen can work his magic with Osa Odighizuwa and the rest of the defensive line.
Who’s Back
Other than those coaches, the rest of the staff from 2019 returns for Kelly’s third season. Of course, many Bruin fans are not happy that Kelly didn’t make additional changes after last season.
Specifically, fans are upset that Jerry Azzinaro remains on the staff as defensive coordinator.
Considering the overall performance of the defense last season, dumping Azzinaro seemed like a given, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Azzinaro’s contract was renewed for one more season.
In the end, Kelly’s stubbornness with respect to Azzinaro may be tied to his fate in Westwood if the team doesn’t show a significant improvement in 2020.
This is the complete coaching staff:
2020 UCLA Football Coaching Staff
Overall, the stability of the coaching staff on the offensive side of the ball should allow the offense to continue to make progress. Unfortunately, the defense will have a lot to prove with two new coaches and a defensive coordinator who starts the season on the hottest of hot seats.
Of course, it goes without saying that all of this assumes that they are actually able to play football this year.
Go Bruins!!!
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FYI, Norwood will be running the defense and coach Azz will work with the d-line. I heard this from a very good source. Chip didn’t want to demote his buddy publicly. Remember Norwood tweeted that he was Co-defensive coordinator after he was hired.
It's Monday Aug 10th and Dan Patrick is reporting this morning that the Pac 12 and the Big 10 are going to cancel their football seasons and will officially announce this tomorrow. The Big 12 and ACC remain on the fence, and the SEC is full speed ahead and and will add teams for their upcoming season.
That roar you hear in the distance are the earth's tectonic plates realigning.
Man, we need fanposts.