The Chip Kelly era has concluded in Westwood.
After six seasons in Westwood, Kelly was hired away to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Friday evening.
The veteran head coach was said to be emotional while talking with players during a meeting Friday as he explained his decision to leave. An interim coach has not been named.
UCLA has started a national search for a new head coach. Athletic Director Martin Jarmond has asked the players for a 96-hour window before making any decisions to transfer from the university.
“Timing is a challenge,” Jarmond said. “I’ll be honest, timing is a challenge, but any time you go through a change or a search, there’s never a good time. That’s life. So we aren’t going to focus on that, we’re going to focus on doing what we need to do to get the next leader of this program.”
Erin Adkins, Christina Munger-Rivera and Josh Rebholz are among the executive team members who will assist Jarmond with the coaching search.
The athletic director told reporters that the university was not caught off guard and was ready to move forward with its coaching search after he received a call from Kelly on Friday morning about his intentions to leave his post. Kelly had interviewed for multiple NFL offensive coordinator jobs over the last two weeks.
Jarmond also expressed confidence that the university will do well with its search for the next head coach, despite being the only program in the sport that will have a search going on while the bulk of the college coaching job cycle already settled down.
The roster could take a significant hit with all players now having a 30-day window to transfer out of the school and find another university to continue their careers, but with the timing of the opening, the players could also be faced with limited options. The Bruins were expecting to see several players return for the 2024 season, including quarterback Ethan Garbers, receiver J.Michael Sturdivant and linebacker Kain Medrano among others.
The Bruins will join the Big Ten Conference for the 2024 season with an unfavorable schedule that features a nonconference game against LSU before playing Oregon, Penn State, Washington and USC and now they have a vacancy at the top just as programs are beginning to gear up for spring practices.
Several UCLA running backs, including starting running back TJ Harden, have shared posts on social media asking for DeShaun Foster to become the head coach.
Foster is a former player and running backs coach for the program, who took a job as the Las Vegas Raiders’ running backs coach earlier this month. He was promoted to associate head coach before the 2023 season by Kelly.
“The qualities I’m looking for: First, we want a person of integrity. We do things the right way here at UCLA. We don’t cut corners. We do it right,” Jarmond explained. “This is a tough job being a football head coach, nowadays in this world you need a CEO who embraces all aspects of a successful program. That’s NIL. That’s recruiting. That’s donor relations. That’s the development of young people. It’s all of that.”
Jarmond stated he spoke to the players soon after the coach did and mentioned that the program’s culture is important and that the players share similar qualities they look for in their next coach.
“One of the things that the young men mentioned was they wanted someone that can relate to them,” Jarmond said. “That relates to them not only as a football player, but a young man off the field. They want someone that they can talk to and connect with. That’s important to them.”
Jarmond also confirmed that Kelly must pay UCLA a $1.5 million buyout. Kelly’s decision to pursue an opportunity at Ohio State will reunite him with head coach Ryan Day and Justin Frye, the associate head coach for the offense.
Day hired former Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator last month, but O’Brien is now heading to Boston College to become the Eagles’ head coach.
Day played quarterback at New Hampshire with Kelly as his offensive coordinator from 1999 to 2001. Kelly went on to become the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and hired Day as his quarterbacks coach in 2015. Day also followed Kelly to San Francisco where both held the same positions for the 49ers. Day and Kelly were on a golf course together when they found out that the Bruins would be joining the Big Ten in June 2022.
“We are extremely excited to have Chip and his wife, Jill, joining our program,” Day said in a statement. “His experience as a head coach at Oregon, UCLA and in the NFL will bring immediate value to our entire team. I am really looking forward to reconnecting with Chip, introducing him to our staff and team and chasing a championship together.”
Frye was Kelly’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at UCLA before leaving for a job with the Buckeyes in 2022.
Kelly finishes his UCLA tenure with a 35-34 overall record (26-26 in Pac-12 play). The Bruins were 6-12 against teams ranked in the Top 25 with Kelly at the helm and were bowl-eligible just three times during his tenure.
“Can’t thank Coach Kelly enough for taking a shot on a tall, skinny walk-on receiver,” UCLA tight end Hudson Habermehl posted on social media. “Congrats on the new beginning. Forever thankful for all you have done for me!”
The Bruins (8-5 overall, 4-5 Pac-12) finished the 2023 regular season losing three of their last four conference games, with the only victory coming in a rout of crosstown rival USC. In December, the Bruins used a strong third-quarter effort to beat Boise State in the LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium. There was speculation late in the regular season that UCLA might move on from Kelly, but the school stood pat.
Instead, it was Kelly who started looking for other options, finally making the unorthodox move of giving up a Power Five head coaching job to become coordinator at another Power Five school.
Kelly is one of the godfathers of the up-tempo, spread offense that dominated college football in the early 2010s. He became Oregon’s coach in 2009 and went 46-7 over four years before jumping to the NFL. He went 26-21 in a little less than three full seasons (2013-15) in Philadelphia and then spent one season as coach of the 49ers, going 2-14.
Kelly took over at UCLA after Jim Mora Jr. was fired in 2017 and had a roster predominantly filled with underclassmen his first two seasons.
It was a slow build. Kelly started with three straight losing seasons at UCLA before finally turning it around in 2021 and going 8-4. The Bruins went 25-13 over the past three seasons, but they could never crack nine wins and tended to fade late in the season.
They were expected to contend for a spot in the Pac-12 championship game last season, especially since they didn’t have to face Washington and Oregon. Under coordinator D’Anton Lynn, UCLA put together one of the best defensive seasons in school history as it led the nation in stopping the run. But Lynn was in Westwood for only one season before jumping to rival USC.
The coaching search begins while the university continues its search for a new chancellor. Gene Block has served as UCLA’s chancellor since 2007 but is set to retire at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.
In recent months, other college football programs, such as Washington and Arizona, also dealt with sudden coaching changes and managed to quickly hire their next coaches.
UCLA will be asked to do the same to provide a sense of direction for the players and staff that remain in Westwood.
“We’re looking for a leader, permanently for our program,” Jarmond said. “I told the team to give us 96 hours. Could be earlier, could be later. But we’re going to move fast. That’s the priority.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
