Longtime NFL assistant coach Eric Bieniemy is taking the offensive coordinator job with head coach DeShaun Foster’s new staff at UCLA, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Bieniemy was previously UCLA’s running backs coach from 2003-2005. He was last coaching in the college game from 2011-2012 at Colorado — his alma mater. The decorated offensive coordinator spent 2013-2022 with the Kansas City Chiefs, five years as running backs coach and five as offensive coordinator. He joined the Washington Commanders staff for the 2023 season before now making the jump back to college.
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The new UCLA offensive coordinator was a key piece of head coach Andy Reid’s staff in Kansas City that won two Super Bowls in a four-year span from 2019-2022. His name often came up in head coaching discussions around the league, though he was never able to land a job.
UCLA is finalizing a two-year deal to make Eric Bieniemy the school’s new offensive coordinator and associate head coach, ESPN sources tell me and @adamschefter. He’s the former offensive coordinator of the Commanders (2023), Chiefs (2018-22) and Colorado (2011-12). pic.twitter.com/qVYaVOoi1C
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 25, 2024
He joins Foster’s staff at UCLA which is dealing with the departure of head coach Chip Kelly this offseason. That while the program prepares to enter the Big Ten and the new landscape of college football.
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Editorial Note: National NFL writers, high-profile sports talkers and even fans have championed this idea of every college coach leaving the sport ‘because of NIL and the transfer portal.’ First, the numbers don’t say that. And then this happens, so of course we must ask the same questions
Another NFL coach takes a college job. Is the NFL workload sustainable? https://t.co/DhOupW9PgN
— Ben Kenney (@benzkenney) February 25, 2024
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