Is the UCLA Football Job Desirable?

Yeah, yeah it is.

Chip Kelly may have eroded UCLA’s standing among high school recruits, but the school’s standing in the coaching community remains strong. (Photo credit: Ross Turteltaub/uclabruins.com)

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I was planning to start writing the 2022 UCLA Bruins football season preview this morning, but an episode from Split Zone Duo’s Patreon feed made me think back on a discussion that has been brought up ad nauseam since the end of last season: the desirability of the UCLA job.

I don’t know if it is a coping mechanism or what, but there’s always been a chorus of UCLA supporters who have been willing to stick it out with Chip Kelly because “who are they going to get instead?” It’s a common thought to believe that the grass is not always greener on the other side, and one that UCLA fans are very used to, with multiple coaching hires refusing to pan out in recent years. This thought process has been exacerbated in recent years due to the repeated failings of the Chip Kelly era on the field, which has especially lowered the talent level in the program, as well as the financial issues in the athletic department. It creates a perception that UCLA will not be a desirable job because of everything currently wrong with it.

But fans tend to have a warped perception of their team, both good and bad. That’s why I tend to put more stock in what national writers are willing to say because it gives a more neutral observation of the program. That gets us to the latest Patreon episode of Split Zone Duo, which featured Secret Base’s Stephen Godfrey and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson (both of whom are our former colleagues when they were at Banner Society) doing a coaching gossip column where they unloaded their respective notebooks on what potential hiring and firings could potentially happen this year. The general theme of the episode was “there likely won’t be any big openings unless something crazy happens”, with of course Nebraska and Auburn getting some focus, but then Richard Johnson decided to opine about UCLA unprompted. I’m going to quote most of what he said below, but this was in response to a question of what school opening could shake things up in a major way:

But if that one [UCLA] opens, with where they’re going, and what they are and where they are locationally right now, and who [Martin Jarmond] runs that program, there are gonna be some people queuing up to grab that one…you could have somebody big come from somewhere established. Remember, I’m gonna say this throughout the season, if the sitting head coach at Oklahoma and the sitting head coach at Notre Dame can leave, anybody can get it.

There’s a lot to unpack in what was essentially just a minute-long excerpt from the episode. First, I should mention that Johnson does not believe UCLA wants to fire Kelly at the moment; despite signing him to a “fake” extension (aka an extension that extends the years out with a minor salary increase but makes a future decoupling much more cost-effective), Johnson believes the UCLA administration wants Kelly to work out and is not trying to undercut him. On top of that, both Johnson and Godfrey believe UCLA is poised to improve on last season’s 8-4 record, which would guarantee Kelly is here another season.

That said, boy that is a spicy quote to just throw out there.

I should mention that I trust Johnson and Godfrey when it comes to this sort of information. They’ve built their reputation on being truthful with what they know and not going for the “hot take” style of other pundits, so when Johnson comes out and says that UCLA will have a host of appealing candidates should the job open up, I’m liable to believe him because it is likely what he is hearing throughout the coaching world. And he lays out exactly why UCLA is an appealing destination for a coach:

• “Where they’re going” - specifically, the Big Ten, with all the money and prestige that comes with that. A UCLA that remained in the Pac-12 is likely not as appealing a job.

• “What they are and where they are located” - A top-tier academic institution that happens to be located in one of the central talent hubs in the country, especially if you are looking for skill position players. UCLA should always have a high base level of talent just by recruiting in its own backyard. Oh, and the new facilities are pretty good as well.

• “Who runs the program” - Martin Jarmond may come from a basketball background, but he cut his teeth at Ohio State. He knows football and knows how important football is. More importantly, he’s made a lot of smart decisions to position the importance of football going forward, from getting the Jordan deal done to convincing UCLA President Gene Block to sign on to the Big Ten move. Organizational alignment is a big deal in football circles, and Jarmond has repeatedly signaled he is willing to put in the work to make that alignment work.

• "A wife job” - This is actually in relation to another school, but both Godfrey and Johnson mention what a benefit it is to be a school that is considered a “wife job”; that is to say, to be a school with a lot of things appealing to a coach’s wife, who also must uproot and move.

And then Johnson follows that up by throwing out the whopper that UCLA could easily get a successful coach from a higher-end school for the job, with the reminder that Notre Dame and Oklahoma, two of the blue bloods of the sport, lost their coaches to other schools this offseason. If you’re a UCLA fan worried about what the future could look like post-Kelly, this should be music to your ears.

Now, this is not to say UCLA is getting Nick Saban tomorrow. I also doubt UCLA could pull a coup for a Lincoln Riley. But by mentioning that anyone could move, Johnson is stating that it would not be shocking to see someone at that next level below willing to jump. You should think of someone like a Dave Aranda or a Lane Kiffin, at a job and performing well but looking to have their future blocked in various ways. Or think of someone like Brett Venables in 2021 - he’s not leaving Oklahoma now, but UCLA as it currently sits is the type of job that could have given Venables pause and made him consider leaving Clemson.

Just to add a bit of support to this theory, we already should have known UCLA was a desirable job because that’s how they got Chip Kelly in the first place. Remember: Kelly was THE biggest name on the market and was being aggressively courted by both UCLA and Florida at the time, and he ultimately chose UCLA because he believed it would provide him the best situation in which to win. Now, the results have not been there, but that does not take away from the fact that UCLA was seen as desirable by one of the biggest names on the market five years ago, and that was before everyone knew that Big Ten money was on the way.

That sets the stage for this coming season. I agree with Johnson and Godfrey that Kelly is likely not getting fired this season, but the parameters of Kelly’s new contract and the shifting college football landscape has turned this into something of a make-or-break season for Kelly’s program. Win nine or more games, and you can show that things are trending in the right direction. Lose five or more, and UCLA could be the biggest brand in the market for a new coach and would have some quality options to choose from.

Huh, guess this turned into something of a season preview after all.

Go Bruins!

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