Hey, Henry, what's the 4-1-1 on Chipster O.G. leaving town without the buyout bonus? It was alluded to in this spate of posts but, because he's taking a new job, he leaves town with zero dough?
One more thing, my friend. I drove by this morning to see the Kobe Bryant statue. You should see the fans' expressions. Many appeared awestruck, proud and yet solemn, teary eyed. I know what that meant. Mrs Bryant was correct in suing the parties involved and she won them all too. What a statement, not that she needed that settlement $$$. That morning, nothing, zilch should have been allowed to take off. It saddens me to this day that an iconic, once in a generation athlete had to lose his life that way.
Chip's contract is pretty clear. Ohio State can pay it, but it will not be reduced.
Keep in mind that Chip just received a $1M retention bonus within the last two months. So, he likely has at least 1/3rd of the buyout money laying around.
Idk that was y first thought when I saw this article show up on my email at work. I mean, if I’m the AD I wouldn’t be doing my job if I don’t call Nick Saban. You just never know, it doesn’t hurt to give the man a call and see if he is tempted.
#1 UCLA can't afford Saban, #2 Saban retired due to the rigors of the job, do you really think those "rigors" go away with a dumpster fire football program like UCLA's? He'd have to put in double the effort just to climb the program out of the abyss its currently in. Not even worth the call, waste of time.
Perhaps, but when interviewed, that's not what he said. He said he was just getting too old and felt he couldn't perform at that high of a level any longer. Which made sense to me. In addition, NIL has been around now for a few years as has the transfer portal and Saban as well as Kirby Smart were still doing pretty good with both, so I'm not sure I would believe that the screwed-up nature of the current college football landscape caused Nick to hang it up.
I think you're both on it. Saban has nothing in the world to prove, and he has been doing this a long time. Coaching Bama must be an unbelievably consuming job, and he has a pretty cushy gig awaiting him. But Saban has also been vocal about the challenges and pitfalls of issues like the portal and NIL and realignment. I think it's understandable that he doesn't want to deal with everything the job requires anymore. And to think he'd want to dive in deep to all those dynamics in order to revive a charity case like U.C.L.A. is overly wishful thinking.
Urban Meyer said the same thing when he left OSU and we saw him the following year with the Jags. I mean, it’s outlandish to think he could come to UCLA, but if you’re the AD, what do you have to lose by calling him, see what his availability (if any) is.
Urban Meyer would command $10 million. This is why it's terrible that Kelly left. We cannot afford even $8 million per year, but in 9 months we could afford much more. Meyer would be on the table, but we are about to roll the dice on someone who, for better or worse, will be our coach for at least the next 4 years.
For an interim, I suggest Ken Niumatalolo. I would love to see how his Triple offense might look with the Bruins. But, it would have been better with Deshaun Foster as RB coach.
Yep, DeShaun is gone, which brings up another point. If Jelly 2.0 gets a actual new coach in (not an interim), that new coach would have to bring in his own assistants. They may not even get a full staff in before Spring ball!! The more and more I think about this, with that supposed 96 hour statement, it has to be an interim coach. It's the only way it would work.
Any of the assistants. They could then potentially prove themselves and be named permanent after one season. Of course, this occurs quite a bit in College football. One problem here is that the 2024 UCLA schedule says this next season will not be good for this program, no matter who the coach is, hence this is where the interim coach suffers, and the narrative idea may fall apart.
lmao can we please disavow the notion that UCLA has high academic requirements for its student athletes? I mean it's higher than a place like San Jose State, but if you measure the academic qualifications of athletes at UCLA vs the rest of the student body there is a massive discrepancy. True at every school...including Stanford.
There are plenty of athletes that UCLA can’t admit that can be admitted elsewhere. Nobody is claiming that they possess the same academic qualifications as those admitted academically.
yeah that is kind of my point. but do you have any idea the gap? When I went to UCLA you basically had to get a 1400 on the SAT to have a prayer at admission, but 1000 was required for athletes. Still more than a of other schools, but i mean com on. Even at Stanford you could get in with an 1100 before they moved to the different scale.
With all due respect you clearly haven't spent a lot of time around or with students from failing and/or underfunded high schools... For many of them an "extra 200 points on the SAT" might as well be 2000. Combine that with entrance requirements at place like ASU and some southern schools where it "just means more" that amount to "run fast and fog a mirror" and yeah, it's a factor. That said, Shaw would have been a great hire in 2014 but not in 2024 due to the reasons of the new reality that you and I agree about Even - unless it's a "do us a solid and coach your kid for a year" 🤝 deal and even then id rather go a different direction than that
that and probably a lot more. He gets a lot of interviews and never gets the job. With minority hiring being pushed so hard in the NFL, he should have been at the top of the list to get a job. It's like he is blackballed.
Grubb is going to be one of the most sought after coaches next off season. He's not going to come to UCLA, with all of its NIL problems and bare cupboard, and taint his future by shitting the bed here for 3 years.
Not necessarily - instead of using the B1G money to buy out chip and make a new hire next year as you've advocated, we could take a page out of UDub's book when they fired Jimmy Lake after a year to hire DeBoer and use the B1G money to fire this hire and make a new hire next year if it doesn't work out. No real difference.
I tend to agree but he's now been passed over twice (O'Brien and now Chip) and given Chip's connections with Day, those two are tied at the hip... Might make him more willing if he thinks he's blocked from advancing even within the staff
It all depends on how much longer Chip is going to coach. He might act as a mentor for Hartline, to then take over. If they passed Hartline over without any discussion of his fit, maybe.
Jarmond is quoted by Ben Bolch that he hopes to have a replacement "within 96 hours" which means either (a) an interim or internal promotion or (b) he had started to raise funds for a buy-out and was stopped by Block and, as part of that process, feelers/prelim contacts were out there that can be revisited now. I just hope its not some retread out-of-touch with the NIL/Portal world like Shaw
Not true at all. Look at how quick EVERY OTHER SCHOOL that lost their HC had a replacement. There is not a Power 5 school in the country that does not at all times have a short list of candidates for the head football coach position.
Every opportunity IF his boss didn't stop him from doing so. Heck, it's even a credible scenario that Jarmond told him "y'know, if you found another gig..." to save the buyout he should have never given him in the first place and started back-channeling some of those on the short list he, like every AD other than Donut in the Howland scenario, has for the past few weeks - given that Chip interviewed for pretty much every opening available over the past month
I know you keep saying that, but UCLA can absolutely afford a good number of people on this list, especially once you consider what Kelly’s salary was and that they’re not paying for a buyout on him. The bigger issue is the timing, with NSD being done and spring practices right around the corner. Not a lot of coaches are going to be thrilled about switching at this moment.
I'm sure we can afford Foster and probably Nebraska's DC, but it is not optimal to settle for them. And yes the timing compounds it. If this process could have just waited another 9 months we could have made someone a top 10 highest paid coach. The facts are this is not going to be an A+ hire, but it could have been in 9 or 10 months.
We were paying Chip $6 million. That’s a competitive salary. Fisch was just hired for $7.75 million which puts him as 13th highest paid coach in the country.
It's not really that competitive. Chip was not one of the top 25 paid coaches. Without new money, we are not going to fetch an elite coach using the money that was earmarked for Chip. With the money we'll have next year, we could have afforded a top 10 coach.
This is why Jelly 2.0 who said he has 96 hours will select an interim coach, my guess would be one of the current assistants. 2024 wasn't looking very bright for this program anyway, hence an interim at this point makes sense. You can thank your pals Jelly 2.0 (and/or Blockhead) and the Chipster (OG) for this cluster by the way.
it would have to be a current assistant because nobody in their right mind is going to leave a stable job for a 1 year contract at a bad job. Might as well give it to Jerry.
That’s why I think it makes more sense to take a chance on one of the up and coming or quality coordinators from the NFL. They’re in their offseason.
Yes, they would need the right staff around them to teach them the ropes of recruiting. I think from the side of Xs and Os, and ability to coach up their players, they’d be more advanced than other listed options.
“Athletic director Martin Jarmond told the team it would have a new coach within 96 hours,” according to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. Shortly after the story was published, Feldman took to Twitter to provide additional context, speaking specifically to what kind of candidate Jarmond and the UCLA Bruins will be aiming to bring to Westwood.
“A person of integrity. We don’t cut corners here. I want someone that’s passionate and has energy. I want a teacher, a developer. I want someone hungry. I want someone that wants to be a Bruin.”
As far as who that someone may be, Feldman listed seven candidates in his story on The Athletic: former Stanford head coach David Shaw, current Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck, Raiders running back coach and former Bruins running back coach Deshaun Foster, UCLA defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, Ohio State running back coach Tony Alford, Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White, and USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who served on the UCLA staff last year.
Fleck is probably by far the best off that list, but if he's going to coach a mediocre Big Ten program, why not stay at your current job which has permanent low expectations.
When he arrived at CU, he kicked out like 90% of the players off the team to allow the kids he brought from his old college to play. I hope that our boys who played their hearts out for a BS coach would deserve better treatment.
He kicked them off the team because they had no business being on the roster. In any event, it is now the norm for coaches to bring a crop of players with them. But Colorado was a special case....historically bad roster.
Here, his current roster is not materially different from our current roster. God knows we would need him, or whoever we hire, to bring at least 10 guys with him.
It's generally accepted that Deion Sanders is an up and coming coach with a bright future. By your logic, Jedd Fisch was unworthy of a job after both 2021 and 2022.
Had no business being on the roster? Plenty of those kids he kicked off became starters and contributors at D1 schools, including one in Westwood. Deion was making a statement and a lot of kids were collateral damage.
Serious question: what about Foster/Lynn make you say they have a high potential ceiling? Not saying they don't, but I just don't see the evidence of that unless you are throwing any young coach who has had any success in the having a high potential ceiling basket.
Let's start off with Lynn. A former player who has had many coaching stints at multiple defensive positions and organizations. Exposure to many different positions gives you a better sense of the needs of those positions. He hasn't been entrenched in any given position (i.e., offensive coordinator) so he's adjustable. There is the worry that it means he turns out to be a Steve Lavin who was exposed to multiple systems but never was able to develop a system that works for him. But that transitions to the next point which is instinct. Lynn has had the right instincts to have the right play at the right time. Instinct and intelligence go hand in hand. In order to play fast and hard with instinct, you have to be well prepared. Lynn has done a lot with athletes of lower graded ability (outside of beasts like Latu). Lavin had zero instincts. He threw spaghetti at the wall on a play-to-play basis. Lynn is also not analogous to a Karl Dorrell who had no coordinator experience. Dorrell only was a wide receivers coach who went straight to head coach. Youth can go either way in terms of being good or bad, but one aspect that is true is that you're not so stubborn or entrenched of doing it a certain way.
Foster would be more akin to a Karl Dorrell with limited coaching experience. That said, he's done some great work with multiple running backs. However, if no realistic candidates are out there right now, he would fit the bill of an interim. If he does bad, he's only interim and you can then go after a coach during a normal search period. If he does awesome with the limited resources he was given with, then you can evaluate him.
Foster isn’t coming back for one year. He’s not an interim coach, if he’s hired. Chipster and Jelly 2.0 put us in the situation where it’s too late for that option.
work is work. there is no stain which is why coaches get recycled over and over no matter any "stains". is Bill Belichick "stained"? look at his track record without having Tom Brady. you can only add to your resume. people will not black ball you over bad stints.
being an interim coach for 1 year does not put a stain on a coaching career. Taking the job full time and failing after 3-4 years would. Whoever takes this job, whether it's an interim coach, some no name coordinator, or Nick Saban is going to win 3-5 games next year and not take an ounce of blame for it (nor should they).
you can say this about virtually every assistant coach. The jury is still out on if Lynn is even a good DC. But let's say he is a great DC. Still nobody has supplied any evidence that he will be a good HC. And that is the point. UCLA should not be a petri dish for testing out coordinators as head coaches.
Face facts, again. Donut Dan, Chipster, and Jelly 2.0 have run our football program into the ground. What should be is no longer the case.
With the situation and timing we’re in, our best options are rolling the dice on a coordinator of interest, vastly overpaying a lower level head coach on the rise to abandon their current program at the last second, or hoping a retread can rediscover their mojo.
Who would you like to hire at this time, that’s a realistic option?
I'm not disputing that our best options are now rolling the dice. it's literally our only option, in fact. Give a coordinator or mid major coach an offer they cannot refuse (i.e. a power 5 head coaching job), hold your nose, and hope for the best.
I said this in a reply, but it might make more sense to take a chance on one of the up and coming or quality coordinators from the NFL. They’re in their offseason.
Yes, they would need the right staff around them to teach them the ropes of recruiting. I think from the side of Xs and Os, and ability to coach up their players, they’d be more advanced than other listed options.
Coordinators like Ejiro Evero, Bobby Slowik, and Frank Smith. Maybe even Brian Flores or Aaron Glenn. They all might want to stay in the NFL, but it could be at least worth seeing if they’re interested in being a head coach, now, and trying to setup an interview.
I'd have to say with Conference re-alignment, UCLA's schedule, NIL, the portal and the current skill level of UCLA football, if you are an NFL coach at any level, you'd probably be better off staying at that spot, even if it means not attaining a head coaching position in College. The dynamics of this situation is that someone has to come in year 1 and be faced with the fact that it will be a definite struggle to make their first season a success, no matter who they are.
The big bump in pay could be worth the jump. Those in colder weather might appreciate the change in location. The latter two have been passed up as head coaches and might be willing to prove themselves in college. It doesn’t hurt to reach out and see about setting up an interview.
you got to look at what they are coming to. Chip is leaving a crappy roster with a crappy recruiting class coming in. Next year's class is going to suck to. Whoever takes this job could very well win 7-8 games COMBINED the next two seasons, get fired, and be tainted.
One, our track record shows the next coach will likely have 4+ seasons to prove himself. Two, with the situation, that’s where a coach proves himself. He works on recruiting the diamonds in the rough and coaching them (and all the rest of the players) up.
Yes, the first two seasons will likely be tough, but they can aim to improve us over two years and have the greatly improved third year to put themselves in the spotlight.
4+ years is the problem. If it's a bad hire we are stuck for nearly half a decade. But from the coach's perspective. Rebuilding a Big 10 program from the basement would be QUITE a feat especially given the infrastructure he will be inheriting.
Those are good names, esp Evero who was a great DC here with the Broncos. My worry is how quickly they could get up to speed with NIL and recruiting. I think that's job #1 for any new Bruin coach.
Let's lobby for Nick Saban to re-retire.. He has a few good years left I believe. Just kiddin' you guys, lol !
Hey, Henry, what's the 4-1-1 on Chipster O.G. leaving town without the buyout bonus? It was alluded to in this spate of posts but, because he's taking a new job, he leaves town with zero dough?
..ah gots' ta know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhbeugRm66U
That I don't know. I think Ohio State may have to split with UCLA on this one. This is also a sore subject with me too.
One more thing, my friend. I drove by this morning to see the Kobe Bryant statue. You should see the fans' expressions. Many appeared awestruck, proud and yet solemn, teary eyed. I know what that meant. Mrs Bryant was correct in suing the parties involved and she won them all too. What a statement, not that she needed that settlement $$$. That morning, nothing, zilch should have been allowed to take off. It saddens me to this day that an iconic, once in a generation athlete had to lose his life that way.
Chip's contract is pretty clear. Ohio State can pay it, but it will not be reduced.
Keep in mind that Chip just received a $1M retention bonus within the last two months. So, he likely has at least 1/3rd of the buyout money laying around.
Actually according to Jarmond, Chip owes UCLA $1.5 million for leaving and that they were going to enforce it. This was from a Ben Bolch tweet.
OSU paying it
That I agree, OSU will gladly pay this. It's nothing for them.
Yep
Idk that was y first thought when I saw this article show up on my email at work. I mean, if I’m the AD I wouldn’t be doing my job if I don’t call Nick Saban. You just never know, it doesn’t hurt to give the man a call and see if he is tempted.
#1 UCLA can't afford Saban, #2 Saban retired due to the rigors of the job, do you really think those "rigors" go away with a dumpster fire football program like UCLA's? He'd have to put in double the effort just to climb the program out of the abyss its currently in. Not even worth the call, waste of time.
Saban retired because of NIL and the Transfer Portal. Didn’t want to deal with those two things.
Perhaps, but when interviewed, that's not what he said. He said he was just getting too old and felt he couldn't perform at that high of a level any longer. Which made sense to me. In addition, NIL has been around now for a few years as has the transfer portal and Saban as well as Kirby Smart were still doing pretty good with both, so I'm not sure I would believe that the screwed-up nature of the current college football landscape caused Nick to hang it up.
I think you're both on it. Saban has nothing in the world to prove, and he has been doing this a long time. Coaching Bama must be an unbelievably consuming job, and he has a pretty cushy gig awaiting him. But Saban has also been vocal about the challenges and pitfalls of issues like the portal and NIL and realignment. I think it's understandable that he doesn't want to deal with everything the job requires anymore. And to think he'd want to dive in deep to all those dynamics in order to revive a charity case like U.C.L.A. is overly wishful thinking.
And Saban has a new gig on College Game Day.
Urban Meyer said the same thing when he left OSU and we saw him the following year with the Jags. I mean, it’s outlandish to think he could come to UCLA, but if you’re the AD, what do you have to lose by calling him, see what his availability (if any) is.
Urban Meyer would command $10 million. This is why it's terrible that Kelly left. We cannot afford even $8 million per year, but in 9 months we could afford much more. Meyer would be on the table, but we are about to roll the dice on someone who, for better or worse, will be our coach for at least the next 4 years.
Even for the sake of discussion, I don't want to hear Meyer's name mentioned anywhere around U.C.L.A.
retired because of NIL and all the adverse changes to the college game the last few years
For an interim, I suggest Ken Niumatalolo. I would love to see how his Triple offense might look with the Bruins. But, it would have been better with Deshaun Foster as RB coach.
Yep, DeShaun is gone, which brings up another point. If Jelly 2.0 gets a actual new coach in (not an interim), that new coach would have to bring in his own assistants. They may not even get a full staff in before Spring ball!! The more and more I think about this, with that supposed 96 hour statement, it has to be an interim coach. It's the only way it would work.
love the interim idea....but who the hell is going to accept that?
Any of the assistants. They could then potentially prove themselves and be named permanent after one season. Of course, this occurs quite a bit in College football. One problem here is that the 2024 UCLA schedule says this next season will not be good for this program, no matter who the coach is, hence this is where the interim coach suffers, and the narrative idea may fall apart.
Exactly my thinking. Whether it’s Anton, or Ken, both would have to know that they have a grace period to show what kind of team they can build
but that's the point. they can't grow a team in that period of time.
I know how this might sound, but what about Lane Kiffin?
Sounds great. Gawd that would be fun.
he currently makes $8.85 million
Too expensive and happy at Ole Miss, not a chance.
it's like if an Ole Miss basketball fan suggested hiring Mick Cronin.
David Shaw for the simple reason of understanding high academic requirements. Pete Carroll? Eric Bieniemy? Chris Peterson?
Talk Nick Saban into un-retiring. This is the best bet.
David Shaw.....Eric Bieniemy.....NO.
Eric has had lots of problems with player relationships
Cheatey Petey? HELL NO.
(And the only reason I'm not even more emphatic about that is that this is a family publication! LOL)
Completely agree.
Big no on David Shaw. I like him as a person but not as our HC.
Totally agree.
lmao can we please disavow the notion that UCLA has high academic requirements for its student athletes? I mean it's higher than a place like San Jose State, but if you measure the academic qualifications of athletes at UCLA vs the rest of the student body there is a massive discrepancy. True at every school...including Stanford.
There are plenty of athletes that UCLA can’t admit that can be admitted elsewhere. Nobody is claiming that they possess the same academic qualifications as those admitted academically.
yeah that is kind of my point. but do you have any idea the gap? When I went to UCLA you basically had to get a 1400 on the SAT to have a prayer at admission, but 1000 was required for athletes. Still more than a of other schools, but i mean com on. Even at Stanford you could get in with an 1100 before they moved to the different scale.
And do you understand the gap of our requirements vs. the bare minimum (which is then cheated to meet) of most of the elite programs?
Yep. And it's tiny. Another 100 or 200 points on the SAT....please.
Add cheating onto that and you’re at the same 400 point gap - or more - that you’re complaining about.
Ever hear of Vontaze Burfict? Even SC wouldn’t admit him. He ended up at ASU. There’s definitely a difference.
With all due respect you clearly haven't spent a lot of time around or with students from failing and/or underfunded high schools... For many of them an "extra 200 points on the SAT" might as well be 2000. Combine that with entrance requirements at place like ASU and some southern schools where it "just means more" that amount to "run fast and fog a mirror" and yeah, it's a factor. That said, Shaw would have been a great hire in 2014 but not in 2024 due to the reasons of the new reality that you and I agree about Even - unless it's a "do us a solid and coach your kid for a year" 🤝 deal and even then id rather go a different direction than that
Pete would actually be a great hire. Or his son. Bieniemy is a hard no. There's a reason he can't buy a HC job in the NFL.
Typical Evan comment. Wrong as usual.
lol. typical BBB88 comment. disagree with someone and launch an ad hominem attack.
Can’t get along with players.
that and probably a lot more. He gets a lot of interviews and never gets the job. With minority hiring being pushed so hard in the NFL, he should have been at the top of the list to get a job. It's like he is blackballed.
Shaw turned out to be a mediocre coach.
not really. Coaching Stanford football is like coaching the Cincinatti Reds. There's only so much you can do with that program.
Deserves a look: Tommy Rees-former Notre Dame OC, then Alabama OC, had to go when Saban retired and now Browns TE coach
Likely not attainable: Ryan Grubb, current Alabama OC, former Huskies OC
I like the idea of Ryan Grubb.
Grubb is going to be one of the most sought after coaches next off season. He's not going to come to UCLA, with all of its NIL problems and bare cupboard, and taint his future by shitting the bed here for 3 years.
So, if that's the prospect Evan, what coach in their right mind would come to UCLA? LOL. You just eliminated almost every candidate!
Bingo. Now we agree. You just made the argument for keeping Chip around another year.
Okay Evan, go ahead and keep the Chipster (OG) for another year! LOL.
would have been preferable to the shit storm we are going to have now. Whoever we hire is likely our coach, for better or worse, for at least 4 years.
Not if they are interim.
Not necessarily - instead of using the B1G money to buy out chip and make a new hire next year as you've advocated, we could take a page out of UDub's book when they fired Jimmy Lake after a year to hire DeBoer and use the B1G money to fire this hire and make a new hire next year if it doesn't work out. No real difference.
Chip quit.
Ima go with Hartline or Fleck.
I doubt we have a chance at Hartline. He seems like the type to be loyal and wait his turn. At least for now.
Probably. We'd need to offer the fortune of Croesus.
I tend to agree but he's now been passed over twice (O'Brien and now Chip) and given Chip's connections with Day, those two are tied at the hip... Might make him more willing if he thinks he's blocked from advancing even within the staff
It all depends on how much longer Chip is going to coach. He might act as a mentor for Hartline, to then take over. If they passed Hartline over without any discussion of his fit, maybe.
“…having left UCLA to take over an offensive coordinator position with XX. “
I see Dimitri had this one lined up for a while 😅
Jarmond is quoted by Ben Bolch that he hopes to have a replacement "within 96 hours" which means either (a) an interim or internal promotion or (b) he had started to raise funds for a buy-out and was stopped by Block and, as part of that process, feelers/prelim contacts were out there that can be revisited now. I just hope its not some retread out-of-touch with the NIL/Portal world like Shaw
Not true at all. Look at how quick EVERY OTHER SCHOOL that lost their HC had a replacement. There is not a Power 5 school in the country that does not at all times have a short list of candidates for the head football coach position.
You're giving way too much credit to a guy who had every opportunity to can Kelly after the ASU debacle. Old "read the room"!
he would not have pledged to make a new hire in 96 hours if he didn't have a short list a year ago.
It may end up being any port in a storm.
Every opportunity IF his boss didn't stop him from doing so. Heck, it's even a credible scenario that Jarmond told him "y'know, if you found another gig..." to save the buyout he should have never given him in the first place and started back-channeling some of those on the short list he, like every AD other than Donut in the Howland scenario, has for the past few weeks - given that Chip interviewed for pretty much every opening available over the past month
We can't afford any of these guys. Should go with the interim option and then go after a top 10 coach in December.
I know you keep saying that, but UCLA can absolutely afford a good number of people on this list, especially once you consider what Kelly’s salary was and that they’re not paying for a buyout on him. The bigger issue is the timing, with NSD being done and spring practices right around the corner. Not a lot of coaches are going to be thrilled about switching at this moment.
I'm sure we can afford Foster and probably Nebraska's DC, but it is not optimal to settle for them. And yes the timing compounds it. If this process could have just waited another 9 months we could have made someone a top 10 highest paid coach. The facts are this is not going to be an A+ hire, but it could have been in 9 or 10 months.
We were paying Chip $6 million. That’s a competitive salary. Fisch was just hired for $7.75 million which puts him as 13th highest paid coach in the country.
It's not really that competitive. Chip was not one of the top 25 paid coaches. Without new money, we are not going to fetch an elite coach using the money that was earmarked for Chip. With the money we'll have next year, we could have afforded a top 10 coach.
This is why Jelly 2.0 who said he has 96 hours will select an interim coach, my guess would be one of the current assistants. 2024 wasn't looking very bright for this program anyway, hence an interim at this point makes sense. You can thank your pals Jelly 2.0 (and/or Blockhead) and the Chipster (OG) for this cluster by the way.
it would have to be a current assistant because nobody in their right mind is going to leave a stable job for a 1 year contract at a bad job. Might as well give it to Jerry.
That’s why I think it makes more sense to take a chance on one of the up and coming or quality coordinators from the NFL. They’re in their offseason.
Yes, they would need the right staff around them to teach them the ropes of recruiting. I think from the side of Xs and Os, and ability to coach up their players, they’d be more advanced than other listed options.
I’ll take unlv guy
What a joke.
“Athletic director Martin Jarmond told the team it would have a new coach within 96 hours,” according to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. Shortly after the story was published, Feldman took to Twitter to provide additional context, speaking specifically to what kind of candidate Jarmond and the UCLA Bruins will be aiming to bring to Westwood.
“A person of integrity. We don’t cut corners here. I want someone that’s passionate and has energy. I want a teacher, a developer. I want someone hungry. I want someone that wants to be a Bruin.”
As far as who that someone may be, Feldman listed seven candidates in his story on The Athletic: former Stanford head coach David Shaw, current Minnesota head coach PJ Fleck, Raiders running back coach and former Bruins running back coach Deshaun Foster, UCLA defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe, Ohio State running back coach Tony Alford, Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White, and USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn, who served on the UCLA staff last year.
Fleck is probably by far the best off that list, but if he's going to coach a mediocre Big Ten program, why not stay at your current job which has permanent low expectations.
Grubb off the board
why is nobody mentioning Deion Sanders? Not that he would come here, but he's better than some of the riff raff that have been mentioned.
When he arrived at CU, he kicked out like 90% of the players off the team to allow the kids he brought from his old college to play. I hope that our boys who played their hearts out for a BS coach would deserve better treatment.
He kicked them off the team because they had no business being on the roster. In any event, it is now the norm for coaches to bring a crop of players with them. But Colorado was a special case....historically bad roster.
Here, his current roster is not materially different from our current roster. God knows we would need him, or whoever we hire, to bring at least 10 guys with him.
You really think we should bring players and coach that leg CU to a 4-8 (1-8 conf) record in the 2023 season to UCLA?
It's generally accepted that Deion Sanders is an up and coming coach with a bright future. By your logic, Jedd Fisch was unworthy of a job after both 2021 and 2022.
I also wonder if Deion really wants to stay in college coaching once his kids are out of school
Fair concern, but that's gotta be a concern about every D1 head football coach with how the sport is changing the last few years.
Had no business being on the roster? Plenty of those kids he kicked off became starters and contributors at D1 schools, including one in Westwood. Deion was making a statement and a lot of kids were collateral damage.
Ryan Grubb off the table, going to Seattle.
D’Anton Lynn or DeShaun Foster. Both affordable with a high potential ceiling. Though I think Lynn is on a fast track to the NFL
Serious question: what about Foster/Lynn make you say they have a high potential ceiling? Not saying they don't, but I just don't see the evidence of that unless you are throwing any young coach who has had any success in the having a high potential ceiling basket.
Let's start off with Lynn. A former player who has had many coaching stints at multiple defensive positions and organizations. Exposure to many different positions gives you a better sense of the needs of those positions. He hasn't been entrenched in any given position (i.e., offensive coordinator) so he's adjustable. There is the worry that it means he turns out to be a Steve Lavin who was exposed to multiple systems but never was able to develop a system that works for him. But that transitions to the next point which is instinct. Lynn has had the right instincts to have the right play at the right time. Instinct and intelligence go hand in hand. In order to play fast and hard with instinct, you have to be well prepared. Lynn has done a lot with athletes of lower graded ability (outside of beasts like Latu). Lavin had zero instincts. He threw spaghetti at the wall on a play-to-play basis. Lynn is also not analogous to a Karl Dorrell who had no coordinator experience. Dorrell only was a wide receivers coach who went straight to head coach. Youth can go either way in terms of being good or bad, but one aspect that is true is that you're not so stubborn or entrenched of doing it a certain way.
Foster would be more akin to a Karl Dorrell with limited coaching experience. That said, he's done some great work with multiple running backs. However, if no realistic candidates are out there right now, he would fit the bill of an interim. If he does bad, he's only interim and you can then go after a coach during a normal search period. If he does awesome with the limited resources he was given with, then you can evaluate him.
Foster isn’t coming back for one year. He’s not an interim coach, if he’s hired. Chipster and Jelly 2.0 put us in the situation where it’s too late for that option.
UCLA head coach, even interim, would be a big step up for him.
Not really. In the short term, yes.
But in the long term it puts a stain on his coaching career, if he doesn’t get hired full time, and if he wants to continue advancing in the NFL.
That’s why it would likely take a long term contract to incentivize him.
work is work. there is no stain which is why coaches get recycled over and over no matter any "stains". is Bill Belichick "stained"? look at his track record without having Tom Brady. you can only add to your resume. people will not black ball you over bad stints.
being an interim coach for 1 year does not put a stain on a coaching career. Taking the job full time and failing after 3-4 years would. Whoever takes this job, whether it's an interim coach, some no name coordinator, or Nick Saban is going to win 3-5 games next year and not take an ounce of blame for it (nor should they).
you can say this about virtually every assistant coach. The jury is still out on if Lynn is even a good DC. But let's say he is a great DC. Still nobody has supplied any evidence that he will be a good HC. And that is the point. UCLA should not be a petri dish for testing out coordinators as head coaches.
if you're going to trivialize and distill it down to "virtually every assistant coach", then there's no discussion to be had.
bingo.
Face facts, again. Donut Dan, Chipster, and Jelly 2.0 have run our football program into the ground. What should be is no longer the case.
With the situation and timing we’re in, our best options are rolling the dice on a coordinator of interest, vastly overpaying a lower level head coach on the rise to abandon their current program at the last second, or hoping a retread can rediscover their mojo.
Who would you like to hire at this time, that’s a realistic option?
I'm not disputing that our best options are now rolling the dice. it's literally our only option, in fact. Give a coordinator or mid major coach an offer they cannot refuse (i.e. a power 5 head coaching job), hold your nose, and hope for the best.
I said this in a reply, but it might make more sense to take a chance on one of the up and coming or quality coordinators from the NFL. They’re in their offseason.
Yes, they would need the right staff around them to teach them the ropes of recruiting. I think from the side of Xs and Os, and ability to coach up their players, they’d be more advanced than other listed options.
Coordinators like Ejiro Evero, Bobby Slowik, and Frank Smith. Maybe even Brian Flores or Aaron Glenn. They all might want to stay in the NFL, but it could be at least worth seeing if they’re interested in being a head coach, now, and trying to setup an interview.
I'd have to say with Conference re-alignment, UCLA's schedule, NIL, the portal and the current skill level of UCLA football, if you are an NFL coach at any level, you'd probably be better off staying at that spot, even if it means not attaining a head coaching position in College. The dynamics of this situation is that someone has to come in year 1 and be faced with the fact that it will be a definite struggle to make their first season a success, no matter who they are.
The big bump in pay could be worth the jump. Those in colder weather might appreciate the change in location. The latter two have been passed up as head coaches and might be willing to prove themselves in college. It doesn’t hurt to reach out and see about setting up an interview.
you got to look at what they are coming to. Chip is leaving a crappy roster with a crappy recruiting class coming in. Next year's class is going to suck to. Whoever takes this job could very well win 7-8 games COMBINED the next two seasons, get fired, and be tainted.
One, our track record shows the next coach will likely have 4+ seasons to prove himself. Two, with the situation, that’s where a coach proves himself. He works on recruiting the diamonds in the rough and coaching them (and all the rest of the players) up.
Yes, the first two seasons will likely be tough, but they can aim to improve us over two years and have the greatly improved third year to put themselves in the spotlight.
4+ years is the problem. If it's a bad hire we are stuck for nearly half a decade. But from the coach's perspective. Rebuilding a Big 10 program from the basement would be QUITE a feat especially given the infrastructure he will be inheriting.
Those are good names, esp Evero who was a great DC here with the Broncos. My worry is how quickly they could get up to speed with NIL and recruiting. I think that's job #1 for any new Bruin coach.
Thanks! I agree with the concern. That’s why they’d have to pick their staff, wisely.
I would think most of the NFL guys would try to keep Ken Norton Jr. around. That should help with the potential transition.