UCLA Football Coaching Hot Board 1.0

It's been too long since we got to do one of these.

Is Tony White at the top of the UCLA wish list?

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Folks, it’s been a while since we’ve had to do a coaching hot board for a major UCLA athletic program. In fact, the last time we did that, we were back at Bruins Nation, and Mick Cronin was not even on the initial list that Dimitri put together.

This is also the first major hiring being done by Martin Jarmond, which is an interesting factoid all of its own. Jarmond took over the athletic department during the first summer with COVID and has mostly spent his time shepherding the programs without having to do much work, so he will finally have a chance to put his stamp on the department and chart a path forward. Whether that is a good thing or not remains to be seen, especially as he bailed out on getting rid of Kelly following the Arizona State debacle, allowing him to do just enough (aka beat a bad Southern Cal team only to play an uncompetitive game against UC Berkeley) to save his job.

That said, I’ve talked around the big news long enough, so here goes: Chip Kelly is gone, having left UCLA to take over an offensive coordinator position with XX. The departure of Kelly has been rumored for a few weeks now, but we’re finally at the end point. Kelly will have left UCLA after compiling a 35-34 record with a 26-26 conference mark, ending what will go down as one of the most subpar and mediocre runs in UCLA football history.

As this Hot Board is going up in February, it’s important to note that the list of available names has shifted greatly. Back when we initially started putting this list together back in November, there were two obvious names at the top of the list in Johnathan Smith and Jedd Fisch. Both of those coaches were hired to new jobs since that initial draft, with Smith going to Michigan State while Fisch was recently hired at Washington to replace the departed Kalen DeBoer, another obvious Kelly replacement who was never hired due to organizational incompetence. UCLA is entering the job market extremely late in the cycle, with a new coach having to navigate a reopened transfer window for current players and trying to fill out a roster after Signing Day has passed. It is not an enviable position to be in, which is why there are a few stopgap options on this list.

That said, this is still a pretty good job in the current college football landscape. The perks of the UCLA job have always been known - live in LA next to a hotbed of good high school talent, excellent facilities, and a fanbase that will put up with subpar rebuilding years - and now has the added benefit of being in one of the two major conferences going forward with Big Ten play starting this season. The Bruins should have a good list of options available, many of whom may not even be on this list. With that said, let’s break down some early names.

The Top Choices

Tony White

Current job: Defensive coordinator, Nebraska

Tony White feels like the big hot name amongst UCLA insiders for a variety of reasons. For one, he has ties to UCLA, having played for the Bruins from 1997 to 2000 and working as a graduate assistant in 2007. In addition, White is a really good defensive coordinator. Last year, the Huskers ranked 6th in the country in defensive SP+. This is not a one-time occurrence, either; White took over at Syracuse in 2020 and got the Orange to improve from 46th in his first year to 24th by the time he left. White has ties to the region as well, having coached at Arizona State and San Diego State prior. Finally, White has a reputation as a good recruiter, having been named a top recruiter while at SDSU and with plenty of articles in recent history noting his recruiting prowess. Perhaps just as important, White spent last year getting a close look at Nebraska’s NIL machine, which just landed a top quarterback recruit in Dylan Raiola along with others for a recruiting class that is currently 18th in the country according to 247Sports with one five-star and seven four-stars.

There is always going to be some hesitancy to hire a head coach with no prior experience - after all, the last time the Bruins did this, we ended up with Karl Dorrell - but there is a lot to like about White’s resume and what he can bring to the program. As a former player with ties to the last truly great UCLA team, White can animate the older segments of the fanbase and get money flowing into UCLA’s NIL collective, and his defensive prowess would help continue the huge step forward made by the program last season.

Tom Herman

Current job: Head coach, Florida Atlantic

Tom Herman is a fascinating option for this job on a variety of fronts. He has those all-important West Coast ties, having grown up in Simi Valley and going to college at Cal Lutheran, where he played football, but the majority of his coaching career has taken place in the state of Texas. He has high-major P5 experience, with his time at Texas being the obvious standout but also when he was offensive coordinator at Ohio State, where he won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach. His time at Texas was not bad by any stretch - he compiled a 32-18 record at the school while taking them to and winning four bowl games, including two Alamo Bowls and the infamous 2018 Sugar Bowl - but he was fired for never fulfilling the potential that Sugar Bowl victory was indicative of. He has only been at Florida Atlantic for one year, and the program rolled out to a disappointing 4-8 record, but it’s hard to know how much of that was a combination of the wreck left behind by former coach Willie Taggert and the jump up from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference that FAU made last season.

If you’re looking for a head coach who has experience winning at this level, Herman is probably the best option around, but I don’t know if he’ll be available this late in the game. Had this hiring cycle taken place back in December or next November/December, I’d say it’s more possible, but at this moment this feels like a risk on Herman’s part. Still, he’s young and an excellent recruiter, so you’d like his odds of figuring out a way to make UCLA work.

Barry Odom

Current job: Head coach, UNLV

The unsexy but solid option among the group, Barry Odom has proven to be a solid defensive coordinator and an average head coach, though it’s unclear how much of that was just due to Missouri’s general place in the SEC. Odom was very much a Missouri lifer for most of his career, playing for the school and then working his way up from a grad assistant to head coach (with a small stop at Memphis for his first defensive coordinator job). After being fired at Missouri for going .500 over four years, Odom spent a few years at Arkansas as a good defensive coordinator before taking over UNLV this past year. It’s the UNLV job that will get his name in the conversation, as Odom took over a program that was struggling to take the leap to become bowl-eligible and turned them into a team that almost won the Mountain West, losing to Boise State in the championship game. That’s an insane turnaround, though may be unsustainable in the modern Mountain West.

Odom will get play here as the local coaching option with recent success, but he doesn’t have the same track record in the region that Kalen DeBeor, Jedd Fisch, and Johnathan Smith had. As mentioned, Odom has spent most of his time in the SEC, so he has some idea of what it takes to win (and he is a solid recruiter) but there is still an open question about how well he can recruit on the west coast as his UNLV team was largely recruited by previous coach Marcus Arroyo. He’d also have a few questions to answer, namely the rationale behind hiring Bobby Petrino as his initial offensive coordinator when he got to UNLV (Petrino would ultimately leave a few months later for the same job at Texas A&M).

D’Anton Lynn

Current job: Defensive coordinator, Southern Cal; former UCLA defensive coordinator

D’Anton Lynn is going to get play here simply because he was the best thing to happen to UCLA last year. Lynn arrived in Westwood and captained a defensive turnaround that had the Bruins playing like one of the best defenses in the country, a remarkable effort that landed him on the shortlist for assistant coach of the year. But he’s also going to be a controversial option because of the way he left, which was to abscond to Southern Cal and take a few of the remaining quality defensive players with him across town.

While the jury is out on whether Lynn truly is an effective defensive coordinator, his background was strong enough to give him the benefit of the doubt when he was first hired at UCLA and would still be strong enough to give him head coaching consideration. But he also only has one year of college coaching experience and was not a big part of UCLA’s recruiting efforts. Southern Cal has surrounded him with more proactive recruiters so he can more focus on the schematic side as a result, but I am unsure that would work as a head coach. Not to mention that his move to Southern Cal seemed calculated in a way to best help him move on to the NFL where he was previously. I think Lynn would consider the job if offered, but he had to have seen the writing on the wall at UCLA before his departure, and that picture has not improved in the months since.

Brian Hartline

Current job: Co-offensive coordinator, Ohio State

One of the more fascinating names on the list because of his offseason. Brian Hartline is a longtime Ohio State stalwart, playing for the Buckeyes as a player and returning to the Ohio State sideline once his NFL career was over. Hartline has risen up the ranks at Ohio State, going from a quality control assistant to a wide receivers coach to adding the offensive coordinator title to his job description this past season. He already received a “demotion” after the season after Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced he would be bringing in a co-offensive coordinator that would have significant input on playcalling going forward, but it was important to note Hartline was the offensive coordinator in-name-only this past year anyway, as Day called the offensive plays.

Hartline’s biggest positive here would be his prowess as a recruiter. The amount of talent Hartline brought into Columbus is staggering, with Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and future top-5 pick Marvin Harrison Jr. all coming in and developing under his watchful eye. But there are a lot of unknowns here, especially as Hartline has only been a coach for seven years and has never called plays. This would be the equivalent of Clemson promoting their wide receivers coach into the head coaching position simply because he was a solid recruiter and had seen the inner workings of a successful program. Luckily for the Tigers, Dabo Swinney has worked out for them, but if the decision is to go with Hartline, then you’d need to nail your coordinator hires at the same time, which could be a headache.

PJ Fleck

Current job: Head coach, Minnesota

Fleck’s name has started to float around as an option for UCLA, with Brett McMurphy being the most prominent reporter to put it out there. Fleck would check the box as a coach with a good track record, having dragged Central Michigan from purgatory to a New Year’s Six Bowl game during his four-year stretch there and earning a 50-34 over seven seasons at Minnesota, including five bowl wins. He would bring Big Ten coaching experience, which is always a plus considering the move UCLA is making, and is one of the few options on this list that would have the possibility of bringing some of his players with him via the transfer portal.

Look, I love PJ Fleck and his whole thing. Row the Boat was a great slogan at Central Michigan and he’s done a great job building a solid floor for Minnesota. But I am also well aware that Fleck can be personally grating for a lot of people and that may not be the best option after UCLA fans and donors had to deal with six years of Chip Kelly. Also, while his Minnesota teams have been good, they never won the Big Ten West, which has always been the weaker division in that conference, and that’s not great for UCLA’s future.

I have a feeling this is just Fleck’s agent floating his name out there to help get him an extension of some kind, but this is a name that will be considered if some of the top choices don’t come through.

The Interim Option

DeShaun Foster

Current job: Las Vegas Raiders running backs coach

The recent loss of DeShaun Foster to the Las Vegas Raiders was seen as a big loss for the Bruin program by fans. Foster had been the longest-tenured UCLA football coach before his departure. Frankly, it was amazing that Foster stuck it out in Westwood for as long as he did because he was one of the lowest-paid assistants on Chip Kelly’s staff throughout the Kelly era.

Why might he be a good choice? Well, at least one player—sophomore running back Deshun Murrell—has begun lobbying for Foster to be hired. And, James Williams of the LA Daily News indicates that other players are as well.

That said, Foster would represent an attempt at going for more of an interim route with the coaching job. Foster not only has no head coaching experience, he also has no coordinating experience, and frankly, we don’t even know if his recruiting ability is that good because he was handcuffed by Chip Kelly’s recruiting strategy. It would be the biggest gamble on this list to go with a coach lacking in so many ways just because the players like him, but then again this is UCLA so anything is possible.

For the record, you could replace Foster with any other coach currently at UCLA here (Ken Norton, Jerry Neuheisel) and get to the same place.

Coaches Who Will Be Mentioned, But Should Not Be Hired

Eric Bieniemy

Current job: (former) Offensive coordinator, Washington Commanders

These last two names are going to get play for various reasons, but are really bad options for a number of reasons. Let’s start with Eric Bieniemy, the recently-released former offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders. Bieniemy’s stint in the District of Columbia was pretty disappointing, though one could argue that he did not have great personnel to work with, especially at quarterback. Still, Bieniemy did nothing to dodge the allegations that he was propped up at Kansas City by Patrick Mahomes. Bieniemy will get play here because he is a former UCLA coach and should be relatively cheap, given there will be no buyout of any kind attached to him. That said, the last time he worked in college football was in 2012, which might as well have been a century ago with how the game has changed and the new responsibilities of a college head coach. It’s not a good choice. Speaking of not-good choices…

David Shaw

Current job: Currently unemployed; former Stanford Head Coach

The fact that David Shaw keeps getting his name thrown around speaks to how utterly this man broke UCLA fans for the better part of a decade. It also speaks to how bad the expectations are for what UCLA admin looks for in a coach.

David Shaw checks all the boxes that UCLA has recently gone for in a coach. He’s a big-name coach, was recently out of work, and would probably campaign for the job. UCLA admin would love nothing more than to try and sell the fanbase on bringing in a head coach like Shaw as easily as possible.

The problem is that there is a reason Shaw did not coach this past year and ultimately left Stanford after the 2022 season: he is not fit for modern college football. Shaw allowed Stanford to deteriorate under his watch thanks to lackluster recruiting and an inability to adapt to a changing football landscape, and his unwillingness to adapt to the transfer portal was the final straw. Shaw absolutely took the Cardinal to new heights early in his tenure, but his complacency in the latter half of his run put them right back into the hole they were in when Jim Harbaugh first took over that program almost two decades ago. In many ways, Shaw is extremely similar to Chip Kelly, which is why it felt like no surprise that Shaw spent a lot of time around the program this past season and has his son now playing for the Bruins. If Shaw were to take this job, it would be subbing in one bad option for another.

The only way this works is if it comes with an understanding that it is a temporary favor and that the Bruins would move on after the upcoming season for a more permanent head coaching option.


Go Bruins!

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