Tag: Chip Kelly

UCLA Coaching search: Tom Herman a candidate per 247Sports

247Sports lists Tom Herman as a candidate for UCLA job.

Who will be the next head coach for the UCLA Bruins football team? That will be a popular question over the next few days after Chip Kelly left for the Ohio State OC position. 

A flurry of names has surfaced, including Minnesota HC P.J. Fleck. However, one under-the-radar name is Florida Atlantic coach Tom Herman, per Tracy Pierson of 247Sports (subscription required).

Herman spent time in Texas and has a lot of experience, so it’s certainly an interesting idea. There are good and bad things about Herman, but here’s what Pierson said about the pros:

PROS: Herman became a big name in coaching when he was the offensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2012-2014, and then did extraordinarily well in his first head coaching gig at Houston for two years. He was a big thing in 2017 when he was hired at Texas. He’s known as a great offensive mind and a very good recruiter. The feeling is that he’d be very good with donors and NIL. He’s from SoCal, going to Simi Valley High and then playing at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, so he has deep California ties.

Some of the cons include Herman starting off at Florida Atlantic with a 4-8 record. It remains to be seen which direction UCLA will go with: A veteran coach or a young, up-and-coming coach.

Nonetheless, Tom Herman could get a phone call from UCLA.

UCLA coaching search: Bruins need to stay far away from David Shaw

David Shaw as the next UCLA head coach would be quite the decision.

Among the flurry of candidates to emerge for the UCLA Bruins job, one questionable one is former Stanford head coach David Shaw.

With Chip Kelly leaving abruptly for the Ohio State OC job, the Bruins don’t have a lot of choices.

Sure, a guy such as Shaw who has experience and is a well-known name is something to consider. On the other hand, UCLA needs a young, up-and-coming coach who can turn this program around, breathe excitement into the fan base, and be able to adapt to the NIL and transfer portal world.

Shaw isn’t that guy, and despite that, his name has popped up as a potential candidate.

There are a lot of reasons to stay away from David Shaw, and Martin Jarmond making this hire would not be good for his credibility, especially after taking a tough turn after Chip Kelly lost out on Keona Wilhite just days before leaving for the Buckeyes.

Everything Martin Jarmond said after Chip Kelly left UCLA for Ohio State

Here’s what UCLA AD Martin Jarmond said after Chip Kelly left for Ohio State.

The UCLA Bruins football program saw Chip Kelly leave for the Ohio State OC position.

It puts the Bruins in a difficult spot, and one that AD Martin Jarmond has to figure out how to solve.  The pressure is on, and it began when UCLA lost out on Keona Wilhite due to Kelly’s uncertain future.

The question now remains of which direction Jarmond will go in. Will he hire a young coach? Or will UCLA bring in a veteran coach?

It’s horrible timing with the bigger head coach candidates already finding new homes.

Nonetheless, here is everything Jarmond said in his press conference on Friday after Kelly left for Columbus.

Bill Plaschke rips Chip Kelly after shocking UCLA departure

Bill Plaschke rips into Chip Kelly for stunning UCLA departure.

The shockwaves around the UCLA Bruins football program on Friday were at an all-time high. After Bill O’Brien took the head coach job at Boston College, Chip Kelly left the program to take the OC job at Ohio State.

It sure left a sour taste in the mouth of UCLA fans, and for good reason.

The timing of the departure is a horrible look for Kelly and makes it difficult for UCLA to find a viable replacement.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times had no reservations and made his feelings known in a column released on Friday. There is a TON to unpack, and it’s well worth the read (and a subscription, also).

But, here’s just a small tidbit of what Plaschke said about Kelly’s stunning departure:

Classy. Professional. Disgusting…I told UCLA to fire him. I begged UCLA to fire him. At the end of the season I wrote a column saying that UCLA had to fire him…Regardless, by leaving when he did, Kelly made Jarmond look like a fool. He made his players look like suckers. He made the Bruins fans look like bigger suckers….The truth is that the entire UCLA athletic community got played. The reality is that Chip Kelly was a complete phony.

Plaschke is speaking for the vast majority of UCLA fans: It’s a horrible move by Kelly. Surely, he is going to become a name that stirs up fans for years to come.

Look, Kelly has every right to do what he wants. If he wants to call plays for Ryan Day at Ohio State, so be it. If he wanted an NFL OC job, that’s fine. But, don’t wait around for months, strike out on players in the portal and signing day, and then leave the program high and dry after the portal closed and the top candidates found new homes.

Where do they go now? Which players enter the portal? Where does UCLA go from here?

There are more questions than answers.

UCLA bringing coaching instability to Big Ten upon arrival

Big Ten coaching chaos breaks out as Chip Kelly jets out of UCLA to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

While Oregon is coming to the Big Ten with big hopes and dreams of success in 2024, Washington is coming in off an appearance in the national championship, and USC hopes for a bit of a rebound season, the UCLA Bruins are coming in looking like a bit of a dumpster fire by comparison. Nothing could possibly drive that point home than what transpired this week with the football program.

Chip Kelly left his position as head coach of the UCLA football program to take on the offensive coordinator role at Ohio State, a new Big Ten opponent for the Bruins. Kelly will take over the role that was supposed to be filled by Bill O’Brien after the former Penn State head coach took off after about a month in Columbus to become the next head coach at Boston College. O’Brien’s quick move to become a head coach is far from shocking given his drive and goals as a football coach. That much makes sense. But Kelly leaving UCLA as a head coach to be an offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes is eye-opening.

Or, at least it should be for UCLA.

Kelly had been the head coach of UCLA since 2018. His hiring was thought by some to be the near-perfect blend to bring UCLA back to some national relevancy, or at least compete for a PAC-12 title the way he experienced success at Oregon. UCLA never followed through on the mission to support its football program the way it was needed to keep up with the college football powers and the Bruins remained an average or slightly above average football program during Kelly’s time as head coach. UCLA is coming off an 8-5 season a year after a 9-4 season. That has been the high bar for the UCLA program, and it had become clear Kelly was growing more and more frustrated with the situation.

Kelly voluntarily leaving UCLA at this point in the calendar to take on a lesser role for a new conference foe is telling. UCLA has squandered their opportunities for years with a lack of financial support for a thriving football program that has remained in the shadows of rival USC far more often than not.

UCLA is not exactly coming into the Big Ten flying high. They are the baggage that has to come with the additions of USC, Oregon, and Washignton despite being invited before Oregon and Washington were extended invites to the Big Ten. Here’s hoping UCLA figures this out soon so they can be a fun and worthwhile addition to the conference. If they don’t, Big Ten teams will be making trips to a southern California with a giant tarp over one end of the historic Rose Bowl Stadium for years to come, and that’s just not a good look for anyone.

Now the UCLA coaching search will be one to watch, because there is some potential for the right coach to come in and inject some much-needed life into the program. And one coaching candidate that has been mentioned could come from another Big Ten program. PJ Fleck of Minnesota has been mentioned as a top candidate for the job, and who could blame Fleck for rowing out of Minnesota to to UCLA if the opportunity arises?

The good news for Penn State is this is one LA job where James Franklin is not being mentioned as a candidate. Remember all of those USC rumors we have had to deal with? UCLA literally cannot afford that kind of move.

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Opinion: Stop attributing every coaching move to NIL and the transfer portal

What do you think about the current state of college football?

Ben Kenney urges everyone to stop blaming NIL and the transfer portal for every coaching move:

College football’s coaching carousel is still up and running.

Just in the last week we’ve seen Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley take the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator job, Bill O’Brien take the Boston College vacancy and UCLA head coach Chip Kelly leave for O’Brien’s old post as offensive coordinator at Ohio State. That all doesn’t include the UCLA vacancy, which may be filled by another Big Ten coach.

There is a hot term today whenever any coaching move happens, whether that coach got a promotion, left a bad situation, or just needed a change of scenery:

“See! NIL and the transfer portal are ruining college football.”

I will not argue, in some cases it’s true. We’d be naive to look at the retirement of Jay Wright and not attribute at least part of it to the state of college basketball.

The current state of college athletics is in flux, and it is clearly suffering from a lack of power structure to install strict regulations — part of that being directly related to NIL and the portal.

But I’d like to send a message to the college football-watching public: Stop hitting the lowest-common-denominator talking point of ‘NIL and the portal’ to explain every coaching move, and using every coaching move to support some lazy narrative that the sport is about to die.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

This from CBS Sports Radio’s Ryan Hickey perfectly leads into the message of this article.

“Some of the biggest names, some of the best coaches in college basketball and college football are feeling like they’re being driven out of their sport, Hickey said. “Nick Saban, retired. Jim Harbaugh, leave to go to the NFL. And now even Jeff Hafley leaving Boston College to be the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.”

Yes, three legendary coaches: Saban, Harbaugh…and Jeff Hafley? First of all, I posted the following on ‘X’ when this move happened, after Hafley’s agent tried to spin his move:

“Because the guy chose the Boston College job. This is like Deion stirring up all the commotion when Colorado was 2-0, & then wondering why the team had such a large spotlight. This is code for “I was bad at the job and it’s easier to progress as an NFL DC than it will be when I get fired”

It’s simple, he was a below-average college football coach who knew succeeding as a defensive coordinator would be better for his long-term prospects than getting fired at BC. That’s why he left for the NFL. If he cared so much about NIL and the portal, he wouldn’t have taken the Boston College job in the first place.

So Hafley’s one recent example. The other is Chip Kelly, who again left UCLA to take the offensive coordinator job at Ohio State.

Anybody paying an ounce of attention knew Kelly was on thin ice at UCLA, and was almost fired last year. Pair that with him losing a freshman five-star quarterback to the Portal (because Kelly benched him during the season), his star defensive coordinator leaving and UCLA having the worst recruiting class in the Big Ten, and you can see why Kelly also thought succeeding as an OC at a place like Ohio State is better for him than being fired at UCLA.

Again, NIL and the transfer portal exist as part of the job description of these coaches — of course it makes the job more challenging. I’d argue the recruiting schedule makes it harder than ever, but that’s a separate discussion.

Just because these coaches move on, move laterally or take promotions doesn’t mean NIL and the portal are driving everybody away.

There are NFL coordinators taking jobs in college (Wink Martindale with Michigan and Stephen Belichick with Washington). Does that mean the NFL model is suddenly unsustainable? Or do those moves make sense for their careers?

All I ask is that we all thing for three seconds before attributing something to NIL and the transfer portal. It’s lazy, it’s greatly reductive and doesn’t tell the full story about the state of the sport.

Former Alabama OC Bill O’Brien accepts job as Boston College head coach

Former Alabama and Ohio State OC Bill O’Brien accepts Boston College HC job

On January 19th, [autotag]Bill O’Brien[/autotag] was unveiled as the offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Just three weeks later, and O’Brien is on the move again as he will be taking over the Boston College head coaching job. Former Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley made the shocking decision to step away last week in favor of a defensive coordinator position with the Green Bay Packers.

The former Alabama offensive coordinator spent the 2023 season with [autotag]Mac Jones[/autotag] and the New England Patriots, but with Bill Belichick being let go the Patriots decided to clean house. O’Brien was a big factor in the Buckeyes landing QB [autotag]Julian Sayin[/autotag] from Alabama, so you have to wonder what this might mean for Sayin’s future.

Ohio State has already replaced O’Brien as they landed UCLA head coach Chip Kelly today.

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8 candidates to replace Chip Kelly at UCLA, including Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck

Chip Kelly is off to Columbus. Here’s who the Bruins could target as they embark on a late-cycle search.

Seemingly no matter what time of year, the never-ending college football coaching carousel continues to spin.

Just as the dust began to settle after the domino effect that followed Nick Saban’s retirement at Alabama, Boston College’s Jeff Hafley kicked off another wave of coaching movement.

Hafley left to become the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator, and newly hired Ohio State offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien was brought in to replace him.

Now, another Power Five job appears to be opening as UCLA’s Chip Kelly is expected to leave his position to become the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator, as was first reported by The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman.

Kelly was rumored to be on the hot seat at the end of 2023, but an upset win over USC likely saved his job. Still, he was apparently looking for greener pastures and was reportedly in the mix for several NFL offensive coordinator jobs.

He has now found his soft landing spot, and he’ll leave Los Angeles behind with a 35-34 record in a six-year tenure that was headlined by a 9-4 finish in 2022.

Now, as the Bruins embark on a coaching search very late in the cycle, here are eight names that could be in the mix for this job, including another sitting Big Ten head coach.

Social media reacts to Chip Kelly leaving UCLA for Ohio State

Social media reaction to Chip Kelly stepping down as head coach at UCLA to become offensive coordinator at Big Ten rival Ohio State.

Social media was abuzz Friday when news broke that Chip Kelly was expected to step down as head coach at UCLA to become offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

The move by Kelly is the latest to cause more than a few heads to turn. Just over a week ago, Jeff Hafley surprised many when he stepped down as head coach at Boston College to accept a position as defensive coordinator for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.

The two moves are indirectly tied together. At Ohio State, Kelly will replace Bill O’Brien, who had been hired by Ryan Day to become the Buckeyes’ new offensive coordinator just three weeks earlier. O’Brien agreed to become the new head coach at Boston College on Friday.

O’Brien spent the 2023 season as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots after two seasons in the same role at Alabama from 2021-2022.

Kelly, meanwhile, had been head coach at UCLA since 2018. He led the Bruins to just three bowl appearances in six seasons, including the 2023 LA Bowl at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. UCLA defeated Boise State in that game, 35-22.

There’s been plenty of discourse as to why Kelly made the move. Here’s how Twitter/X users reacted to the news of Kelly’s transition from UCLA head coach to Ohio State offensive coordinator.

UCLA coaching search: P.J. Fleck’s name surfaces as a candidate to replace Chip Kelly

Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck has emerged as a leading candidate to replace Chip Kelly.

The UCLA Bruins are officially undergoing a coaching search. Finally, after plenty of NFL OC rumors, Chip Kelly is leaving UCLA and is becoming the new OC at Ohio State following Bill O’Brien’s departure to Boston College.

It has sent a whirlwind around Westwood, although fans recently called for Martin Jarmond to move on from Kelly after losing out on Keona Wilhite.

Social media is having a field day, and rightfully so, with Kelly moving on but “staying” in the Big Ten Conference.

Where does UCLA go from here? Well, one name has popped up as a strong candidate: Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck.