Tag: UCLA Bruins

Former Commanders OC Eric Bieniemy to UCLA as OC/associate head coach

Bieniemy is back in the college game.

For the second consecutive year, Eric Bieniemy has a new job.

After 10 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs — the final five as offensive coordinator — Bieniemy left to become the offensive coordinator/assistant head coach of the Washington Commanders in 2023.

On Saturday, Bieniemy agreed to become the new offensive coordinator/assistant head coach for the UCLA Bruins and new head coach DeShaun Foster. UCLA’s former coach, Chip Kelly, left this offseason to become Ryan Day’s offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Bieniemy, a Southern California native, returns to UCLA, where he spent three seasons (2003-05) as the running backs coach.

Bieniemy’s one season in Washington didn’t go well. The Commanders led the NFL in pass attempts and were last in rushing attempts. Washington finished 4-13, and Bieniemy reportedly had issues with multiple players regarding his coaching style. The Commanders had plenty of other problems, but Bieniemy didn’t help.

A two-time Super Bowl champion as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator, Bieniemy has been an OC at the college level before. In 2011, Bieniemy was offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Colorado, a role he held for two seasons before coming to the NFL with the Chiefs in 2013.

Softball goes 0-2 in its first day at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic

The Nebraska softball team opened its first day at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with a doubleheader against San Diego State and No. 19 UCLA.

The Nebraska softball team opened its first day at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with a doubleheader against San Diego State and No. 19 UCLA. The Huskers fell in hard-fought games, losing to San Diego State 3-2 then 9-8 to UCLA.

In the loss to the Aztecs, Nebraska held a one-run lead twice but struggled to pull away, going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Peyton Cody led the Huskers in the batter’s box, going 2-for-3 and hitting a home run.

Freshman Emmerson Cope also drove in a run for Nebraska, putting it on the board in the second inning. Cope also started in the circle and pitched for 3.1 innings, giving up one run. Sarah Harness pitched 1.1 innings and allowed one run.

In the loss to UCLA, the Huskers fumbled an 8-4 lead to the Bruins in the seventh, after holding UCLA went up 4-1 in the first. Billie Andrews powered Nebraska’s bats, hitting 3-for-5 with a pair of home runs, two RBIs and three runs scored. Freshman Samantha Bland doubled twice and drove in two runs, while Cody hit 1-for-2 with an RBI double.

Freshman Caitlin Olensky started in the circle for the Huskers and allowed four runs in 1.0 inning. Harness followed Olensky and pitched the next 2.0 innings allowing zero runs. Kaylin Kinney threw 3.1 innings of relief and was charged with five runs. She pitched 3.0 scoreless innings of relief heading into the seventh inning.

The Huskers fall to 6-5 with the loss and will play No. 23 Oregon Saturday for the second day of the tournament. The first pitch is at noon and can be viewed on FloSoftball.

Report: Oregon to hire Darren Uscher back from UCLA in personnel and recruiting role

The Oregon Ducks are reportedly hiring former UCLA general manager Darren Uscher, who left Eugene earlier this year to join the Bruins.

College sports are starting to look more and more like professional sports every year.

Just a month ago, Darren Uscher left Oregon to become the general manager of the UCLA football program.

He’s back.

According to 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz, Uscher is returning to Eugene as a member of the personnel and recruiting department after a lot of change for the Bruins over the last 30 days. Former head coach Chip Kelly recently announced that he was leaving to become the new offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes, leaving UCLA to hire DeShaun Foster as the new coach.

Uscher decided the grass was greener in Eugene.

Ever since Dan Lanning took over the Duck program, building a front office has been a priority and so far, no one can argue with the results on and off the field. With Marshall Malchow leading things as the Chief of Staff, the off-field produce is just as strong as the on-field produce for Oregon, and adding Uscher back to the mix doesn’t change that.

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Florida’s stellar week, Vandy defends at Watersound among highlights from last week of college golf

It was a stellar week.

The best college golf week of the spring thus far has come and gone.

Most of the top men’s and women’s teams were in action from across the country, and there were multiple tournaments with loaded fields from Hawaii to Florida and everywhere in between.

Teams continue to jockey for position to get into NCAA Regional play, with some men’s teams having work to do to even make the postseason because of the .500 rule. Meanwhile, plenty of individuals are making strong cases as to why they should win the Haskins or Annika Awards.

All in all, it was a stellar week.

MORE: College golf practice facilities

Here’s what you need to know from the past week of college golf.

What should Oregon Duck fans make of Chip Kelly’s move from UCLA to Ohio State?

Jonathan Stewart and Zachary Neel break down Chip Kelly’s move from UCLA to Ohio State, and what it ultimately means for the Oregon Ducks.

The landscape of college football has been changing so rapidly over the years, that there are few news stories anymore that are truly surprising.

Stanford and California playing as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference? Sure, why not? Oregon and Washington traveling to New Jersey to face Rutgers in conference games? I guess it makes sense.

But a head coach of one Big Ten team leaving to become a coordinator for another Big Ten team?

I can’t say I’ve seen that one many times before.

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That’s the path that former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly recently chose to take, leaving the Bruins to take over as the new offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckeyes. While this move may not be directly newsworthy for the Oregon Ducks other than the fact that it involves a beloved former head coach, it will certainly impact them going forward, destabilizing one of their conference rivals in the short term while offering a huge boost for a new conference rival in the long term.

It’s an interesting move for Kelly, who was the HC at UCLA for six years after spending several years in the NFL following his wildly successful stint in Eugene.

Was it a difficult decision to take a step back on the coaching ladder, though? That’s something that Zachary Neel recently talked to Oregon legend Jonathan Stewart about on the latest episode of the Sco-ing Long Podcast. 

“Do you really think that was a hard decision for (Chip Kelly) to go?” Stewart posited. “That was definitely an easy decision. You’re going to the Big Ten. The Big Ten is about to be larger than life next year. You’re going to be able to have a team that’s already been there and is established. As far as being a part of the powerhouse, you are now part of that.”

While Kelly was already part of the Big Ten with his spot atop the UCLA coaching tree, the move to Ohio State better situates him for future success, with the Buckeyes entering the 2024 season as one of the top-ranked teams in the nation.

“As far as their strengths go and as far as development goes, you don’t really have to develop much going into next year,” Stewart said. “You can go in there and ride the wave, and then put your marking on it. I think that is clearly an easy win.”

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Another thing to consider when evaluating this decision for Kelly is ultimately what his aspirations are. For someone who wants to be a big-time college football coach, or potentially an NFL coach once again, then it may be seen as a step-down, going from a Power 4 head coach to an offensive coordinator. However, if you are considering quality of life, and a desire to simply coach football and not have to deal with recruiting and the unending aspect of the transfer portal, then this is a move that makes sense for Kelly.

“Part of this thing with Chip is that he hated recruiting,” Neel said. “I think he wanted to get away from the transfer portal and recruiting, and he wanted to go somewhere that he could just coach ball. That’s all he has to do at Ohio State because they’ve got a recruiting machine there.”

During his time at Oregon, Kelly was known for being one of the best offensive minds in the world of college football, and he helped revolutionize the game with his spread offense being copied from college all the way to the NFL. Pairing him with the talent that the Buckeyes have is definitely something that should be a cause for concern in Eugene, especially if he doesn’t have aspirations to level up in the coaching world, and simply wants to stick around and coach ball for years to come.

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“They get some of the best players in the nation, so he can just draw up X’s and O’s,” Neel said. “I’m just curious to see what his aspirations are. Does he want to be a head coach again? Does he want to be an NFL coordinator? Or is he just happy to be the Ohio State offensive coordinator for the next 15 years? I think that’s the scariest answer. If he is just happy drawing up these plays for one of the best teams in the nation, I think Oregon fans should be a little bit worried.”

We will see what the dynamic with Kelly as an OC at Ohio State looks like this fall, and it will be great to see him back on the sideline in Eugene once again when the Buckeyes travel to take on Oregon in October.

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Mock draft roundup: How the experts see the Vikings draft plans

After seven weeks and 175 mock drafts, Saivion Mixson breaks down the potential fit for these NFL draft prospects and the Minnesota Vikings

With the first Sunday without football gone, there are only 28 more Sundays to go before the start of the regular season. That 28 becomes a dauntingly high number the more you look at it, so to help mitigate that, we are only one Sunday away from the NFL Scouting Combine, a showcase of over 320+ draft prospects as they look to hear their name called in the 2024 NFL Draft from April 25th-27th (9 Sundays away for those counting).

As we barrel forward into the off-season, there has been an abundance of draft pundits and analysts, ourselves over at Vikings Wire included, that have tried to fit the perfect player with their respective teams. In Tyler Forness’ recent mock draft roundup, he finds the results for the Minnesota Vikings and their projected prospect in 175 mock drafts up to this point, leading to some entertaining results.

Over these 175 data points, 19 players have projected to become Vikings at six unique positions, bringing a different skill set to the purple and gold with each selection. With this, I break down the results and make sense of the limitless possibilities for Minnesota and their 11th pick in this year’s draft.

Please see the evolution of these mock draft roundups below:

Mock Draft Roundup 1.0
Mock Draft Roundup 2.0
Mock Draft Roundup 3.0
Mock Draft Roundup 4.0
Mock Draft Roundup 5.0
Mock Draft Roundup 6.0
Mock Draft Roundup 7.0

Keys to Colorado surviving a three-game road trip against ranked opponents

Here’s how Colorado can survive a grueling three-game road trip, which begins tonight at Utah

The Colorado women’s basketball team (20-4, 10-3 Pac-12) has dominated all season and is currently projected to be a top seed in March Madness. With road games against No. 22 Utah, No. 10 USC, and No. 9 UCLA on the horizon, though, the Buffs need to lock in to maintain their success in the final games of Pac-12 play.

The No. 8 Buffs are amid the toughest stretch of what has been a grueling Pac-12 schedule. On Sunday, they lost to new-No. 15 Oregon State in the first of four straight games against ranked opponents. While the Buffs have yet to drop two straight this year, they’ll now have to fend off the Utes on Friday before taking on the Trojans (Feb. 23) and the Bruins (Feb. 26) in California.

With the pressure on, here are four keys to Colorado surviving the ranked gauntlet of Utah, USC and UCLA:

Colorado men’s basketball at UCLA: How to watch, listen and stream

Colorado will be on national TV again tonight

Only seven regular season games remain for the 16-8 (7-6 Pac-12) Colorado men’s basketball team. After falling to No. 8 Arizona on Saturday, the Buffs’ NCAA Tournament chances aren’t looking great, but a strong stretch to finish the year could be enough to push head coach Tad Boyle’s squad into the Big Dance.

For that to happen, Colorado must play better away from Boulder. The Buffs are 1-6 in true road games as they approach a Thursday night battle at UCLA (13-11, 8-6 Pac-12).

After dropping four of their first five Pac-12 games, the Bruins are 7-1 since and are currently riding a five-game winning streak. Forward Adem Bona and guard Sebastian Mack are the Bruins’ top two scorers and a large reason why UCLA is tied for third place — one game ahead of Colorado — in the Pac-12 standings.

Below is information on how you can watch, listen and stream Thursday’s Pac-12 men’s basketball matchup between UCLA and Colorado.

Game time: Thursday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. MT (6 p.m. PT)

Location: Pauley Pavilion (Los Angeles, California)

TV: ESPN (Dave Pasch and Corey Alexander)

Listen: 850 KOA AM & 94.1 FM

Live Stream: fuboTV (try it free)

Contact/Follow us @BuffaloesWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Colorado news, notes and opinions.

UCLA names former Bruin standout DeShaun Foster as head coach

The UCLA Bruins have found their next head coach in former Bruin standout Deshaun Foster.

After interviewing a handful of candidates, the UCLA Bruins have found their next head coach. Former Bruin standout and NFL running back DeShaun Foster will lead the Bruins into the Big Ten era, replacing Chip Kelly who left the program on Friday to be the offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

The 44-year old Foster placed for UCLA between 1998 and 2002 before being a second-round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2002 NFL Draft. He would spend seven seasons in the NFL with the Panthers and San Francisco 49ers. During his seven year career, he totaled 927 carries for 3,570 yards and 11 touchdowns as well as 142 receptions for 1,129 yards and five touchdowns.

The California native began his coaching career in 2013 as a student assistant with UCLA before being promoted to graduate assistant in 2014. In 2016, he spent one season at Texas Tech as the Red Raiders’ running backs coach before returning to Los Angeles a year later to take the same job with the Bruins which he held through this past season.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.

Who is DeShaun Foster, the former UCLA running back just hired as the head coach of the Bruins?

DeShaun Foster played seven years in the NFL and is a longtime assistant coach.

After former head coach Chip Kelly left UCLA to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, the Bruins have already found his replacement.

The athletic department has hired DeShaun Foster, a former UCLA running back who attended the university between 1998 and 2001. He was selected in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft and played in the pros until 2008.

Here is more from UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond:

“While undergoing a comprehensive search for our new head coach, DeShaun resonated from the start and throughout the whole process,” said Jarmond. “We are looking for a coach with integrity, energy and passion; someone who is a great teacher, who develops young men, is a great recruiter and fully embraces the NIL landscape to help our student-athletes. DeShaun checks all of those boxes and then some. He is a leader of men and a true Bruin. I am excited to partner with him as we usher UCLA Football into an exciting new era.”

After playing for the Carolina Panthers and briefly the San Francisco 49ers, Foster eventually found his way into coaching. He began his coaching career as a student assistant at UCLA in 2013 and he then became a graduate assistant the following year. He served as the director of player development and high school relations in 2015.

Foster briefly left UCLA for Texas Tech (where he was the running backs coach in 2016) before he was offered the same position with the Bruins a year later in 2017.

He remained with the program (becoming associate head coach of the team under Kelly last season) until he briefly accepted a position as running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders.

Even though the former UCLA star had just left the school for the NFL, we recently mentioned Foster as a potential candidate to replace Kelly. He was able to separate himself from a pool of 11 other candidates, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Foster was the “overwhelming choice of the current players” as the top pick to replace Kelly, according to Thamel.

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