Multiple reports have poured in that the UCLA Football staff is one step closer to being completed for the 2018 season. It looks as though Chip Kelly has found his defensive backs coach.
Not retaining current defensive backs coach Demetrice Martin caused a stir among both UCLA Football fans and Bruin recruits. We saw a number of players decommit citing Martin’s release following the bowl game as a reason why. That led to some fans questioning the direction of the team so far under Kelly.
First off those worries are unfounded. There’s still plenty of time in the recruiting game to flip guys, sell recruits on the new staff and it’s likely that we will see some of those decommits return to the UCLA Football program before National Signing day.
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Selling the recruits on the staff just became easier when it was reported by numerous outlets Sunday morning that former Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads had agreed to become the new defensive backs coach. Rhoads, has spent all of his career working on the defensive side of the ball including impressive stints at Auburn and the University of Pittsburgh as a defensive coordinator. Don’t think though that he isn’t a great fit for DB position though.
SOURCE: #UCLA is hiring Paul Rhoads to coach the secondary.. big addition for the Bruins D.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 10, 2017
From 1992-2017 there were only small stints where he wasn’t a defensive backs coach. In 1995 he coached the linebackers for the Iowa State Cyclones and from 2000-’07 he was the defensive coordinator for the University of Pittsburgh where by the end of 2005 the Panthers were ranked second nationally in pass defense.
When he took the Auburn defensive coordinator and defensive backs job in ’07, Rhoads started hot with a defense that ranked in the top 25 across multiple categories. That performance was enough to land him the ISU head coaching job in 2009. His return to the first FBS team to offer him an assistant coaching position was seen as a slam dunk. He was a proven defensive mind who could come in and help the Cyclones slow the high octane offenses of the Big-12 instead of just trying to outscore them.
There was instant success with the Cyclones knocking off Baylor and Nebraska that year. Baylor went 4-8 that season when their stud QB Robert Griffin was lost in the third game of the season with a torn ACL so while it was the first time that Cyclones had beaten a conference opponent in 11 games it was nowhere as big as the next win. Facing Nebraska without your starting QB and leading rusher is a tough challenge. Facing a Nebraska defense that featured names like Jared Crick, Prince Amukamara, and Ndamukong Suh and still winning is nearly impossible. Yet Rhoads and his squad was able to get it done. They wrapped the 2009 season at 7-6 with a bowl win over Minnesota.
However the Cyclones wouldn’t win seven games again during Rhoads’ tenure and he went 8-28 from 2013-’15. He was then fired from ISU and hired as the defensive backs coach at Arkansas. In 2016, his first year as defensive backs coach, the Razorbacks were ranked 51 out of 130 in terms of pass defense but only forced nine interceptions. On the flip side though they only surrendered 10 scores through the air the entire year which was fifth best in FBS that year. That number more than doubled in 2017. Yes the Razorbacks had two pass rushers drafted in the 2017 NFL Draft and a secondary’s best friend is a pass rush. They also had their top CB, junior Ryan Pulley, tear a pectoral muscle and be lost for the season in the first game of the year.
Something else that we can’t overlook is going to be Rhoads going from DB coach to defensive coordinator. He’s had success as a defensive coordinator in previous stops, most notably Pittsburgh, but his calling card seems to be defensive backs coach where he can focus his attention on one unit of the team. That’s exactly what the UCLA Football team will get from him.
You can’t go out and land a big name like Chip Kelly to coach your team and not give him the assistants he wants especially when those guys have proven track records on the field. Yes coach Martin might have him beat in the recruiting category but if Kelly has shown us anything so far it’s that recruits get excited about the idea of being on one of his teams. The Bruins also return a very talented but inexperienced secondary for 2018 should guys if Nate Meadors declares for the draft.
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The only position on the defense that hasn’t been addressed or finalized is the defensive line coaching position. Angus McClure’s status for next season hasn’t been made clear yet but given his versatility as a coach, recruiting ability and deep knowledge of the UCLA academic system, he likely will return to the staff next year.